Toys Your Kids Can Make with Common Household Items

Here is a short list of toys your kids can make without the aid of technology, along with brief instructions for making them. Perhaps your child's hand-held electronic game just ran out of batteries, or you confiscated it due to low school grades, or you are simply short on cash.

Using a little imagination and lots of supervision, your child may become so bored that he or she will create their own toys, designed to get them through a long afternoon. Just be prepared to assist your child in the assembly of their imaginative designs, once their chores have been completed.

Homemade Bubble Blowing Toy

Supplies are simply a large paperclip, and a bowl, filled with a mix of liquid dishes detergent and water. Have your child re-bend the large-size paperclip into a suitable bubble dip-stick shape, but with a safer looped handle.

Holding onto the safe-loop handle, dip the bubble-maker into the soapy solution, hold it up close to their face, and blow bubbles. Your daughter or son will have lots of fun with their homemade bubble blower.

Folding Paper Airplanes and Hats

My son has a great book, "The Dangerous Book for Boys" by Conn and Hall Iggulden (HarperCollins 2006) which has inspired him to do many of the projects found in it, as well as creating some of his own. He has spent many days perfecting one of the book's projects, folding paper planes and hats.

Newspaper hat folding can be fun for very small children, although newsprint ink can get grimy. Think it through, then fold your point on top, open it up, and fold a brim. With a little effort (and several refolds) you and your child will get a newspaper hat folded.

Folding paper airplanes using white computer paper is an art. Basic folds satisfy young children because they actually fly. However the older kids will want an aerodynamically-sound model, so they will fold tail-wings, and fancy turned-down nose tips, until their plane soars great distances.

Although folding is the fun part, once your child has these skills down, and their plane is soaring, they may want to make note of the winning-folds, and then decorate it. Painting, coloring, or strategically placing airplane stickers will add a finishing touch.

Making Over-Sized Cardboard Dice

Using scrap cardboard (shirt cardboard or box cardboard), measure and cut out 6 - 4" x 4" squares and tape together into a cube. Label each side using numbers 1 - 6, or by making 1 - 6 dots per side, as on a regulation die.

Make 2 for a set of over-sized, easy-to-read dice, which will take two hands to toss. This is a wonderfully easy project for your child to learn constructing 3-dimensional geometric shapes.

These projects have been some of my son's favorites over the years, and offer a couple of ways to create toys from practically nothing. Using simple household supplies, see what toys your kids can conjure up!