Buying manufactured toys for your baby can become quite expensive. While there are numerous toys on the market that promise to entertain and educate your child, it is sometimes just as beneficial to create these toys at home without having to spend a great deal of money. One of the most enjoyable things for a baby or toddler to play with are items that can be found in the kitchen. Children are attracted to the idea of pulling all the pots, pans and bowls out of the cupboards and somehow making noise with them. Allowing your child to play with these items can be educational as well as fun. Children soon learn to make “music” with these household items by banging them together, or hitting a bowl with a spoon. Later on as they become toddlers, they then beginning sorting and stacking these items, once again learning as they play.

To teach your baby about texture, you don’t need to spend a great deal of money on manufactured toys, instead you can make your texture blocks at home. Old cereal boxes work great. All you need to do is tape or glue a different texture material to each side of the box. For example, you may have fur on one side which gives your child something soft to feel, and to show a contrast you might have some rough paper on the other side. Always keep in mind however, that these textures need to be baby friendly, you do not want to use anything that will hurt your baby’s skin.

One thing that you will soon discover with your child is that the box is more entertaining than the toy. Keeping old boxes around the house is a great idea. As children get older they will spend hours climbing in and out of these boxes, pushing them and even climbing on top of them. To make the box even more appealing to your baby you can add some color to the box, you can cut out windows and doors for them to crawl through. As your child gets older you can even have them help so that they create the perfect play area for themselves.

When it comes to homemade toys, the possibilities are endless. The most important thing to remember is that all toys should be age appropriate, even if they are homemade and they should be safe for the child to use at all times.