How to Make Toys for an Infant

It is easy to make stimulating infant toys with simple household materials. With some creativity and time, anyone can make rewarding toys that are suitable for hours of infant play. Homemade infant toys are inexpensive and can be easily personalized.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Pens and markers
• Boxes
• Scissors
• Sandpapers
• Sponges
• Plastic containers
• Cardboard
• Foil
• Foam
• Fabric

Prepare Your Materials

1. Save your plastic recycling. Clean plastic tubs and bottles make great toys for infants. Children can stack, fill and dump with tubs used for butter, peanut butter, cottage cheese, yogurt and other foods.
2. Use bright colors. Toys can teach infants about colors, and they stimulate movement and focus.
3. Keep cardboard for projects. Boxes of all sizes can be cut or covered and decorated.
4. Buy foam. Foam is a soft and safe material to use inside of infant toys.

Make Infant Toy Blocks

5. Construct soft blocks with foam and cloth. Wrap the block like a present and sew the ends shut. Use different textures of cloth for added sensory stimulation. Make blocks different sizes to teach size distinctions.
6. Cut out various shaped blocks from sponges to make bath blocks. Bath blocks can float and be squeezed by little fingers. When they are dry, they can be safely thrown and stacked.
7. Make oversized bricks with empty tissue boxes and paper. Cover the boxes and decorate appropriately.

Make an Infant Toy Kitchen

8. Gather materials to craft a pretend kitchen. You will need boxes, cardboard, scissors, markers, kitchen items and food containers.
9. Utilize a few large boxes and a few pieces of cardboard.
10. Be creative and draw an oven door with knobs and buttons on the front of the largest box.
11. Draw burners on the top to create a stove.
12. Keep a box of extra plastic and wooden kitchen essentials next to the stove so your baby can make food any playtime. Obviously, these items should be dull and safe.
13. Make a pretend cupboard for the kitchen with another box. Turn a box on its side and use the box opening as the cupboard's front.
14. Cut the top flaps off of the box.
15. Decorate the side flaps as cupboard doors. Put empty plastic foods jars with the labels still on and empty food boxes for pretend food items in the kitchen cupboard.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure small toy pieces are not choking hazards.
• Supervise infants closely when playing with toys made of a material that can be bitten off during teething.