Elephant

This one is a bit more of a challenging one if you feel like stretching yourself.

You need
- Material  - 1 meter should be plenty
- A sewing machine ( you could do it by hand)
- Buttons for eyes.
- Stuffing
- The pattern also calls for interlining but I chose to make mine without as I wanted floppy ears.

I got the pattern from this site.
http://stitchcraftcreate.co.uk/free-soft-toy-sewing-patterns-elephant/

I found the instructions a little bit too broad for my basic sewing skills to have added some more below.

Cut out the material as per the instructions.  Make your ears and tail as per instructions.




Sew your legs to the body, turn right side out then sew the two short leg parts together (to make the under carriage of the elephant)



- Then place the two body parts back to back and place the tail between them and sew along the back.



Sew the two head pieces together and turn right side out.


This next part I found to be the trickiest.  Pin the ears into place against the body and then pin the heat to the body and sew around leaving a small gap at the bottom to put the stuffing in.



Finally fill your Elephant with stuffing, sew up the hole and sew on two button eyes and you are done.

Rattle/teether

Another really simply toy, takes about 15 minutes to make.  This toy is great as it rattles, provides a good sensory stimulation for babies and is good for children to chew on.
This could be a really good one to get older children involved in making for their younger siblings.

What you need.....
- Plastic bottle caps
- Some ribbon or string
- A drill or tool for making holes.

Process.....
Start by thoroughly washing the bottle caps and removing any inserts in them.  This is important especially if using milk caps as I did, you don't want any off milk on them especially when all bubs pop them in their mouth.  I would avoid milk bottle caps entirely for children with allergies.

Start by drilling a hole in each cap.

Then thread your ribbon/string through the whole and tie a knot on the end so the cap doesn't fall off.  Keep threading the caps on as you like.  If you would like you can tie a few knots in between some of the caps to break it up as I did.  Finally tie a knot or loop on the end so you can hang it up for young ones.



I handed this one to my son and he spent ages looking at each cap and the knots then exploring the noise it made before having a good chew.

Either keep the total length short of supervise children using this toy as it could pose a strangulation hazard id caught around the neck.

When the children have had enough of it you can pull it apart and make a sorting or threading game for older children, which is good to help develop early maths and science skills.

Cardboard building blocks

 

Another simple but very effective toy for children of all ages.  Start by collecting old boxes in a variety of sizes - I used biscuit boxes, tissue boxes, and cereal boxes.  One of the benefits is that they allow children to build really high towers and constructions but cause less damage than wooden blocks when they fall down, they are super cheap to make and older children can be part of the process. These blocks may be useful for siblings especially when the older child loves building and the younger loves knocking them down.  I tested them out with our 11 month old and he was easily able to pick them up. 

 

 

Fill the boxes with newspaper, this helps give them a bit of weight and increases their stability.  Empty boxes seem to crush too easily.

 

Cut out contact to cover the ends and middle of the box.  Contact can be a challenge to work with , you can use paper if you'd like but children may tear it off.  Don't worry about bubbles in the contact.  I found one contact which had sparkles in it and another one which had a furry texture which added another sensory element to the blocks.

 

 

Place the contact over each end making a cut on the corners so you can wrap it around.

 

Then cover the middle with one large piece and your block are ready for use.

Be careful using food boxes with children who have allergies, ensure they do not contain allergens - many cereals contain traces of nuts.

Scrunchie Bags

This is an amazingly simple toy that will keep an infant entertained.  Very good effort to reward ratio.

Get an orange/mandarin netting bag (if you don't buy oranges by the bag full then your local fruit shop will probably give you one for free - ours did).  Fill it with materials that make a good noise when the are scrunched.  I used plastic bags, clear cellophane and a couple of scraps of old material just to make it look a bit more interesting.  Then simply tie a knot in the end and hand it over to bub to play with.

 

 

 

 

 

I made this for my son when he was about 4 months old and he loved it. It is really good as babies find the texture of the netting and the plastic really interesting and the scrunchy noise. If you have a bub that is not really into tummy time try popping in under their feet when the are on their tummy, the feeling on their feet and noise it makes might just distract them for a while.

A couple of tips
* if you are using cellophane make sure that the colour doesn't run.... as babies put everything in their mouth you don't want them to end up with the colour running all over them.
* young ones might get frustrated when the toy rolls away from them, we tied a short bit of ribbon (short enough it couldn't pose a strangulation hazard) to the knot so our son could hold on to it.
* keep an eye on the condition of the bag, with lots of use the netting may tear, it is important not to let your baby keep playing with it if this happens especially if you have plastic bags inside.... Just make a new bag.Enjoy!