15 cheap and free toys for young kids
23rd October 2008
One of my new favourite sites is Simple Mom — I was drawn in by her tag line: Live simply, stay sane. Life hacks for home managers.
I love that term home manager. I think every mom needs business cards with that moniker…
Anyways, Tsh recently published a great list of cheap and free toys for the younger kid set, which I thought was awesome and really relevant with Christmas coming up. Has anyone else noticed the increase in toy commercials on television? *sigh*
I’ve modified her list below, and added our favourites from Chez McDougall-Foster. Got any to share from your house?
1. Egg cartons: They make great caterpillars and they’re good storage containers for little treasures found on walks. (I’ve never used these, but so want to.)
2. Chalk: On sidewalks, on chalkboards…endless fun, and it hoses right off.
3. Water, the sink and plastic dishes: One of Lucy’s absolute favourite things to do.
4. Paper and safety scissors: Old newspapers, expired coupons, scrap paper… give some to your kiddo with a pair of safety scissors, and he’ll be engrossed forever. (At 2.7, Lucy’s not quite here yet, but a great idea nonetheless.)
5. Dried beans or rice: One of Julia’s — our daycare provider — best kept rainy-day secrets. Keep cups and small toys in the bucket for lots of imaginative, sensory play.
5. Toilet paper or towel tubes: They’re great telescopes for your budding pirate, you can cover the ends and pour some dried beans inside for a musical shaker, or you can sit them upright as bowling pins.
6. Old clean socks: Roll them up into balls, or get some markers and wear them on your hand for the classic sock puppets. (Totally have to do this…)
7. Washed out empty food containers: My daughter loves to play kitchen, and she’s stocked with some of our empty syrup, ketchup, and dressing bottles. No need to buy a child-size version of the same plastic thing. (Brilliant idea!)
8. Balloons: Indoor volleyball is fun for everyone. And armed with a marker, they’re transformed into silly faces. (Not a big fan of balloons for their garbage/environmental impact, but can’t deny the fun in this…)
9. Books: We’ve got baskets of books on each floor of our house, and read daily.
10. Paper and crayons: Need 10 minutes to get dinner finished, and get your tot seated at the table at the same time? We do this at least once a week.
11. A cardboard box: Classic — and one we’ve documented in the past!
12. Dollar store re-usable sticker books: Lucy loves these, and we especially like you can reposition the stickers so the book doesn’t die when they’re all used up.
13. Pots, pans, colanders and wooden utensils: Another classic, albeit a loud one.
14. Laundry: Even the youngest kids like to help “sort” clothes (especially their own). Lucy is always ready to “help” by picking out all the socks, then finding the matching ones.
15. The phone: Calling family and friends is always special for both sides.
Possibly related posts:
- Discount clothes online — because we all want cute kids but for cheap
- Toys, a haircut and weekend plans
- Free (or at least cheap) winter fun?
- Links of the day: Dirty kids’ toys, top brands, my first cubicle and more
- Speaking of Santa: A personal video message for your kids! Oh, and bleeding plush toys.
There are some great ideas here, thank you so much for sharing! I especially like the idea of re-using of plastic containers and egg cartons.
I do feel obliged to share this link I just read a couple days ago: http://ecochildsplay.com/2008/10/21/balloons-more-deadly-than-marbles/
I think if you have only one balloon around, and it’s already blown up, it’s pretty safe, but just in case, there is some info about it.
When I had my 1st (over 10 years ago- yowsers!) they were doing an education series about the dangers of balloons at the hospital. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to assume that a blown up balloon is a safe balloon. If a child bites the balloon or sucks on the balloon and it pops, there is the potential that a piece of the latex can be sucked into the throat and asphyxiate the child.
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a wrap your kid in bubble wrap kind of parent — I’ve made visits to the ER. However; the videos that they showed to this 1st time mom were enough to stay with me for over a decade. To this day balloons are a supervised activity and they go nowhere near the face (or they are taken away and thrown out). Under supervision balloons are a blast!
I love all of the suggestions Carly. To keep our older kids busy on camping trips we would create scavenger hunts for them and see what they came back with. Oh and a deck of cards can offer hours of fun — playing match with the younger ones and other games with the olders ones or even making card castles.
those are awesome toys! i’m going to take note of that for my kids.