At Baby Hints and Tips we think th
e simple toys are often the best, we have some simple handmade toys for baby you can make with things around the house. Expert tips by Jan Jones (Early Childhood Educator)
Scrunch Bag
(Suitable for 4-18 months of age)
Materials
Mesh onion or citrus bag
Different coloured cellophane scraps (save cellophane wrapping from gifts)
String or wool
Large needle
Instructions
Cut mesh bag to size required (about 30cm X 40 cm gives an easily held bag)
Sew up one side by weaving string through mesh holes with the needle or fingers.
Stuff cellophane scraps into the bag.
Sew up other end and tie ends of string securely.
Value to the child: Stimulates child’s senses of sound, sight and touch.
Children learn by:
- Feeling
- Moving
- Seeing
- Listening
- Smelling
- Tasting
- Experimenting
- Realising
- Deciding
- Memorising
Other home made toys:
Some things to feel
- Soft toys, balls made from scrap and filled with old stockings
- Dolls from socks
- Small toys tied to elastic and stretched where baby can reach
- Your hands massaging back at bathtime
- Their hands
- Different textures – soft,, hard, furry, smooth
- Games to play with babies
- Look and listen
- Peek-a-boo
- Roley-poley
- Where’s it gone?
- Toy hold and drop
- Names and nonsense conversation
- “Hold my fingers”
- “Watch me working”
- Clap hands
- Ride-a-cock-horse
- Rock a Bye baby
- “Smile and laugh”
- “Where are your feet?”
- “This little piggy”
- Nursery rhyme games
- Where’s baby?
- Cuddling baby
Games to play when I’m crawling
Large balls – including material-stuffed stockings or socks
- – mesh bags stuffed with crinkly paper
- – rolled up newspaper
Blocks – use milk cartons covered with coloured paper
Toys that move
- Junk box filled with safe odds and ends
- Tiny things that can be safely swallowed e.g. sultanas
- Plastic bottles in the bath.
- Colanders in the bath.
- Sponges in the bath.
- Magic box – empty tissue box filled with soft scarves or pieces of material – baby can pull out material and then you can refill it.
