It seems that today’s children get bored soon of any toy and many times, they prefer electronic devices, do you remember how much fun you had as a kid assembling and disassembling toys?

Now with summer vacations or even on weekends, children have a lot of free time that they can devote to doing new things; for example, create toys with recycled materials! Almost anything we have at home can serve with a little imagination to create a fun game. In addition, handmade toys always have a very special value. If you have seen the last Toy Story movie you will know well what we are talking about (don’t worry, we are not going to spoiler).

Reasons why children should make their own toys

The fact that children manufacture their own toys greatly enhances their imagination and makes them gain autonomy by learning to do things for themselves. In addition, when they have finished they will feel great satisfaction and will value it much more than any other toy purchased. Likewise, they will also learn that not everything can be bought. We must educate children that there are things in life that cannot be bought and that many others are not really necessary. It is also a fantastic way for them to understand the importance of recycling and that almost everything can have multiple utilities, also obtaining totally personalized and unique toys. On the other hand, if you decide to make homemade toys all together as a family, you will encourage teamwork and strengthen family ties. In addition, they will learn to enjoy the process and have a fun time getting original toys. Here are two ideas.

Some examples of handmade toys

A game that never goes out of style is foosball, right? You can create it with your own hands and customize the dolls to form a team with family members. To do this, you will need the following materials: Glue, scissors, markers, skewer and ice cream sticks, cardboard, a shoe box and a small plastic ball. The first step will be to create the dolls that will be made with the cardboard. You must draw a triangle for the body and a circle for the head. Afterwards, you can customize them and create your own player. When it’s ready, you cut it out and stick an ice cream stick from behind to each one. To make the soccer field, you have to use the cardboard box. At the ends, you have to cut a square to create the goal, to which you can add a net to make it look more real and, on the ground put green cardboard to simulate the grass of the field. To finish, you have to use the skewer sticks by passing them from one end of the box to the other and glue the dolls. Thus, you will have got the handlebars and you will only have to throw the ball to start the game. Another famous game that we can also achieve with recycled materials is bowling. To do this, you only need to collect 6 plastic bottles of similar size. If they are white better, red masking tape and a foam ball. It is very simple. On the one hand, when you have collected all the bottles to get the number of bowling, you just have to paint them in white and place the red masking tape around. On the other hand, to achieve the ball of the game, make some holes with a cuter in the foam ball to put the fingers and be able to throw it as in a real bowling game and that’s it. To play! Really, you can create a multitude of homemade toys with recycled products, you just have to put a little imagination. In addition, if children get involved and create their own toys, apart from developing values, they get many other lessons that are lost when purchased directly from a store. What do you think of the idea of ​​creating toys with recycled materials? Have you done any yet? If so, do not hesitate to leave a comment telling your experience. Until next week!