Articles on Toys | Topics: toys, toy
by Adriel Villarreal
Homemade toys can help you and your child bond and share special moments together in many ways. In addition, homemade toys help to expand your child's imagination and creative skills. And, of course, there is no greater satisfaction then knowing you have made something yourself!
Make a Kite
Kites are great toys that kids can make themselves or as a project with you. All you need is to help your child through this process is to purchase tissue paper and kite string. The other supplies you will need are most likely already sitting around your house!
To make your kite, you will need to find two sticks. One should be about 3 feet long and the other should be about 2 feet long. It is best to find a straight stick without knots. If you cannot find good sticks, you can purchase 1/8" diameter dowels instead. After you have your sticks, lay them down on the floor in the shape of a cross. The shorter stick should be about 1/3 of the way down the long stick. Tie the two sticks together using a piece of the kite string. Be sure to tie the sticks together tightly and with a crisscrossing pattern in order to hold them in place.
If your child is younger, you will want to help him with the next step, which is to cut a notch in the ends of both sticks. The notches should be about 1/8" deep and wide enough for your kite string to slip inside. Now, you will need to tie some kite string right below one of the notches, then wrap the string once or twice through each of the four notches. After all the notches are connected with string, tie the other end of the string off and cut it.
Now, cut a 2 foot long piece of kite string. Tie it to one end of the short stick and create a loop with the other end of the string. Use this loop to place in the notch at the other end of the short stick. This will cause the stick to have a slight bow, causing about two inches of space to be created between the string and where the sticks cross.
| Bit of History |
Most baby books also tend to romanticize the mother who stays at home, as if she really spends her entire day doing nothing but beaming at the baby and whipping up educational toys from pieces of string, rather than balancing cooing time with laundry, cleaning, shopping and cooking.
| —Susan Chira (20th century) |
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Now, lay your tissue paper out on the floor. It should be large enough that it covers the skeleton of your kite, plus another one inch all the way around. If you have to glue pieces of paper together to make it large enough, that is ok. Cut the paper to a diamond shape while still keeping an extra inch all the way around. When done, cut off the corners of the tissue paper so it leaves about ½ to ¾ inch of bare wood exposed on each stick. Now, run glue along the far edges of the tissue paper and fold it up over the string and glue it to the paper on the other side.
You're almost there! After the glue has dried, cut another 4 foot long piece of string. Stand the kite so the arc is facing away from you and tie this string to each end of the long stick. This is the string on which you will tie your kite string when you are ready to fly it. Then, create a tail for your kite. A strip of bright clothe about 3 to 4 feet long is great for making the tail. Old sheets are perfect for this. Tie the tail to the bottom of the kite with a piece of kite string. Another option is to tie a long string to the bottom of the kite and attach short pieces of clothe to the string.
Kites are particularly fun for kids to make because they can create their own fun designs, such as flowers, rockets, dragons, clouds, butterflies – the possibilities are really endless. After your child gets comfortable making this basic kite, she can let her creativity go wild and design all sorts of different kites. This also provides you with an excellent science lesson because your child will probably need to make slight adjustments to different areas of the kite in order to make it fly.
Other Great Toys
There are plenty of other great toys you can make with your child and a quick Internet search will likely provide you with directions if you do not know how to make them yourselves. For example, you can make rattles, drums, kazoos, and rattles to explore sound and music. Or, you can make your own masks, dolls, costumes, puppets and hats to delve further into dramatic play. Besides the kite, you can learn about how things fly and float by making planes, boomerangs, and boats. You can even make your own yo-yo, handloom, Jacob's ladder, and blocks.
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