The Simple Joy of a Homemade Toy

As I mentioned in my previous post, Alice Cantrell is hosting a Home Made Toy Fair! Gather your felt and scissors and glue, your hooks and needles and yarn, your most luscious fabric bits and laciest bobbles and trims. Or if you prefer, make that your carving knives and wood blocks, your paper maiche and metal works, your pvc pipe and branches and sticks and rolls and rolls of duct tape. Don't forget the paint and clay and beads and your cup of tea (or coffee if you must) and head on over with your arts and crafts things to A Number of Things for inspiration!

All of the toys pictured here are of the toys created by children category. My children are the sorts that are always making things. Like Alice, I simply provide lots of materials that are always available and a few crafts books and blogs are occasionally strewn for inspiration. Tom Kitten, Monkey and Dear Old Dash the Dog pictured above are from Sock and Glove, but more often than not they work from their own imaginations.

They don't like patterns unless they have written them themselves.

Sometimes toys imitate real life, as seen in this almost embarrassing assortment of baby doll toys. I mean these babies have lots of toys!  They have beaded teethers and ring stackers and little puzzles made of foamtastic with little handles on the little pieces so their chubby baby hands can play with them. These babies have stuffed toys for playing in-and-out and a nice pink Busy Box. They have alphabet cards and number cards and animal cards. They also have oodles of handmade miniature books that their loving mothers read to them!

Here are two clay dolls Josiah made for his sisters, and he made them a dugout house for them to live in outside. Hopefully the roof won't cave in like it did on Ma and Laura. Toys like these are often made for gifts for siblings. Why bother trying to shop at a store when you can just make something that you know will delight your brother or sister? Jonathan crocheted mittens for all of his sisters' Bitty Babies one Christmas, and he also made them tiny felt scapulars. Homemade gifts like these are treasured so much because the recipient knows they were made with love and care just for them.

When you make your own toys, you always have exactly what you want to play with. There is no waiting to receive that perfect toy - you just go and make it. And if one day you are enamored with Narnian warriors

and the next you are smitten with aircraft, that's okay. Your paper and clay and wire and paint can turn into whatever you want it to be. 

And if you want your own armor, you just collect lots of cans and go make some.

Of course, many of these toy creations are inspired by the books the children read. In  homeschooling  parlance we call them living books. You can tell that it's summer time, time to read Swallows and Amazons, because Josiah has just made this craft. We live the books.

Here is Josiah with a paper plane complete with little motors and a battery. He confiscated the motors from I don't know where, but I did see parts of an electric toothbrush scattered all over his floor!?

There's no need for a craft kit when you have paper, glue and

paint. Aircraft is Josiah's first love. He makes many things but often returns to his first love - scale models of WWII aircraft such as this aircraft carrier made entirely of cardboard.

So there is a whirlwind tour of some of our homemade toys. Children love to play. Children enjoy toys. Given the opportunity, they will create. Provide lots of supplies. Expect a bit of mess. The materials don't have to be sophisticated or expensive. I have a son who hoards cereal boxes and a daughter who once had twelve butter boxes under her bed. Don't get overly excited when your son has tree branches and wood shavings strewn all over his bedroom floor because he just might be making you a present. Buy a lot of tape. Children are often more successful than adults at things like learning a language or drawing a picture because they have no fear of failure. They see themselves as invincible-

and when it comes to crafts and creativity, that's a good thing.

Comments

[Meredith from Merchant Ships]

Simply amazing!!!

[Laura W.]

Thank you for sharing all of your children's creations! My favorite is the sailboat! I just sat here looking at the photo for the longest time...incredible!

[Rachel]

They are very talented :) I especially liked the armour... (and the fact that your son crocheted mittens for his sister's dolls is so thoughtful!)

[KImberlee]

Thanks for visiting, Meredith, Laura and Rachel! Josiah wished me to note that the boat is a 1/12 replica of the SCARAB found on page 143 of The Picts and the Martyrs.;-)

[Louise]

Your family is amazingly creative! The little boys were drooling over your boys' creations! I am expecting an upsurge of craft activities here, inspired by your talented children. Lydia was amaze at your little girls' skills. Remarkable!

[Donna]

Wow, Kimberlee! So fun. Off to plan some crafts here today!

[Karen Edmisten]

Totally inspirational!

[Alice Gunther]

I missed this post the first time around--it came out the day before we flew home from San Francisco!

I am so glad I discovered it through Alice Cantrell's blog today!!!

Beautiful, Kimberlee!