Dental Floss? No: Kickball Dispensing Robot
When my kids make up their own toys and games, it is worth far more to them (and me) than the priciest, faddiest, shiniest, bestest toy ever.
Here are some recent tops:
Dental floss: Robot; alien ship.
Hand towels: Food to wear on your back if you’re an ant.
Wine stopper: Airplane; spaceship.
Q-tips: Boats, but only for sailing down the stairs.
Clean laundry: Dress-up; catch; keep-away; relay race; tug ‘o’ war.
Dirty laundry: Garbage or recycling; leaf pile.
Pro: Children are engaged, happy, creative, and funny.
Con: I relinquish any control of the agenda.
Pro: I relinquish any control of the agenda.
Con: One gigantic mess.
Pro: One gigantic mess that was not purchased specifically for play.
What are your kids’ most ingenious made-themselves playthings?
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Tags: household objects · toys8 Comments
My son used to pretend his hand was a character and I would have long conversations with it. It would nest in my hair, try to eat things, etc. Many hours were spent just playing with his hand.
I ALWAYS find that my kids like household items better than toys. My son makes inventions out of everything, potions in glass jars with shampoos and soaps and leaves, and forts out of pillows and couch cushions all the time. He WANTS the toys but doesn’t usually play with them more than once or twice…
@Jennifer: Exactly, they *want* toys, but actually play with anything but! In the post I linked to Denise Schipani’s recent post on toys, and I’ll do so again here: http://www.confessionsofameanmommy.com/whats-in-your-toybox/.
We’ve used uncooked macaroni as dirt or sand for trucks that are indoors (and clean). Stick with things like orzo which is easier to clean up and doesn’t hurt when you step on one barefoot.
The ottomans make great hurdles for indoor racing (we’ve had a lot of rain here lately and my kids need exercise. I pretend I don’t know what they’re doing even though “officially” I am against it.)
Tissue boxes make great building blocks too and they do that cool crash thing when you smash cars/trucks into them.
speaking of uncooked macaroni, inside a box it make a great rattle, to go along with pots, pans, boxes of all sorts that are percussion instruments lurking in the kitchen
@Claudine and Kerry: We have a gigantic tub of dried beans in the basement — a present from a creative auntie. They like to run toy trucks through them, but mostly what they love to do is throw them everywhere! We had to put them away for awhile because *that* mess just got to be a bit much. I’ve made rattles out of rice, a stapler, and paper plates, but my kids just gave me patronizing looks: What-ever, mom. Sigh.
I don’t have kids (yet), but my Dad made all my doll furniture when I was growing up. It was a lot of fun because we took scrap wood and designed canopy beds and fancy tables together. Knowing that these pieces were a collaboration between father and daughter meant that I had a deeper appreciation for them than buying expensive furniture out of a catalogue. My brother commissioned Dad to make wooden figurines, but he never wanted to be involved in their creation. My Mom still has all my homemade doll stuff so I can (hopefully) pass it along to a daughter someday.
[...] Frugal Hack: Let Kids Invent Their Own ToysI pretend I don’t know what they’re doing even though “officially” I am against it.) Tissue boxes make great building blocks too and they do that cool crash thing when you smash cars/trucks. [...]