It’s Thursday and time for another Thursday Thirteen! There was a great response to the last one- hope you enjoy this one as well. Instead of running out to buy a new toy when the kids get bored with what they have, try out some of these options that are probably already lying around your house:
1. The phone book – who needs a phone book anymore when there’s Google? For scribblers, the phone book offers page after page to scribble on with one of those big fat crayons. My son (21 mo.) loves to sit at the table and flip the pages and write something on each one.
2. A big box – this one is obvious. I’m sure we all know about the entertainment a child of almost any age can get out of playing with a giant box. Speaking of boxes, check out all the things you can make with giant boxes using box rivets by Mr. McGroovy. Isn’t that cool?
3. Used plastic containers – my aunt babysits kids, and she keeps the plastic containers for items she uses regularly (like Nestle Quick for example) and uses them as blocks. The kids she keeps play with those “blocks” more than any other toy she has. They are also great for the little bitty ones if you put a couple of things that will rattle in them, and put the lid on tight. One of my son’s favorite toys was a Mt. Dew bottle with some pennies in it. Boy that was a loud toy!
4. Dried beans – put several bags of dried beans into a tub and let the kids scoop and pour. This only works with kids old enough not to fling the beans around the room, of course.
5. Plastic cups – great for stacking and for use as bath toys.
6. Old magazines and catalogs – for cutting up and pasting
7. Baby Wipes plastic containers – great for stacking and hiding things in.
8. A set of measuring cups – these “nest” so they’re lots of fun to play with while parents are making dinner
9. A colander and uncooked spaghetti - turn the colander over on the floor or table and show them how to poke the spaghetti through the holes and watch it disappear! (I saw this in Parenting magazine the other day)
Here are a couple I found at Play Library:
10. Metal pots and wooden spoons – another loud one!
11. Old computer keyboards
12. Paper towel rolls
13. Ziploc/GladWare containers. Cut a hole in the top, find objects in the house that can slip through the hole. Great object for sorting and such.
Do you have a Thursday Thirteen we can check out? Leave your link in the comments so we can pay you a visit!
Those are great. Mine are a little beyond that now. I could never fool my son when he was a baby with an unused keyboard. He wanted it hooked up to something. Now he wants its unhooked (wireless)!
Excellent list! Markers and empty toilet paper rolls can make some great crafts too!
Thanks for sharing.
Giant boxes are the best. I had the coolest “houses” growing up thanks to big boxes my dad would cut doors and windows in.
My cats love playing in boxes too
Hey, my kids are 38 and 40 years old, but I used almost all these “toys” for them. Well, except the empty wipes boxes, because we didn’t have wipes in the old days. My kids called the empty TP and paper towel rolls “Do-dee-do’s”, because you put it to your mouth and went “Doo-dee-doo”.
Thanks for the memories.
Add to that list a box of rocks – no joke, my five year old thinks they are the best.
Bubble wrap is good too.
Great ideas, here. We’ve tried almost all of them, and I agree with your assessments. Another one I would add is old plastic or wooden spools (without the thread, of course). My children love playing with Great-Great-Grandma’s bag of old spools.
That’s a great list! My 11 year old is too old for me to sit him in the floor with spaghetti and a colander, though. LOL.
Great ideas! I never thought of the dried beans one!
We had an old fax machine that the kids loved to play with!
Thanks for the link.
My kids do love playing with the measuring cups, and any spoons and such I have lying around.
Old Keyboards are great. Endless fun can be had with them. Until the children learn how to take them appart.
I work in IT and have all sorts of old stuff. My wife thought it was me leaving screws and bits were the children could get to them. It took us ages to figure that one out.
After we learned that our little heman could use his tiny fingers to undo the tightest screw I had to tighten the remainder up after each play session.
Still a great toy but be carefull of brainy infants.
Great info. and resources here!
We’re listing Free Stuff 4 Kids as a recommended site at the National Writing for Children Center.
Suzanne Lieurance
Founder, Director, and Coaching Coordinator
The National Writing for Children Center
http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com
perfect ideas
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our church is requesting toys for the christmas season. we have around 123 kids, and we serve to the comunity of manhattan by providing then food every saturday, there are around 1500 people that come to our church to request toys, food and clothes. we will like your help in providing this expensives to our comunity. thank you for helping us with whatever you can.
att, pastor Fernando Noyola