More homemade toys

We were absent from the blogosphere for a while now- we were quite busy - our family has one new member, a cute little boy, almost three months old, and we did three rounds of chickenpox which meant being stucked in the house for six weeks and so we were forced to think of many boredom busters, meaning a lot of new ideas and games.

One of them is this box which can be used for distinguishing colors and fine motor development for toddlers. Originally, it was just an empty box of cornflakes, which I turned upside down, poked some holes in it (that was the hardest part because I didn't have a scalpel) and decorated them with some washi tape. As we were out of a blue tape, the Younger simply colored it:

We collected many bottle caps, in various colors and started sorting it:

                         

 

However, in the end, the girls really enjoyed in simple mess making:

All in all, it was one less boring rainy afternoon ....

 

More homemade toys

Following the post about How to entertain toddlers for a while , here's another nice idea, which I originally found here .

Educational toy for learning colors and developing fine motor skills

This toy can easily be created by making a hole in the lid of a box (we used a shoe box) and the area around the hole gets colored by markers. To me, it was the easiest to pierce a small hole with scissors and then plug a marker cap, to expand a hole in order to match them exactly. The intention is that the child inserts a cap into a hole with a matching color, and in this way the child learns colors as well as develops fine motor skills. The Big Sister wanted to make a toy for The Little one, so I've let her to paint the area around the holes. Here's the result:

 

It's great to use a box for this game, and not just its lid, because the kids are also amused by putting caps into the box and taking them out. I can confirm that The Little often plays with this and I definitely recommend you to try something like this.

 

Cardboard garage for toy cars

I also made a toy garage for our cars collection, because The Older's obsession with toy cars continues. 

 A little glue (I used Patafix), cardboard and cardboard roll ...

and here's a roof over their head: 

She especially liked the "corridor" in the middle:

Let the game begin!

P.S. Need more ideas? Check this great linky party - just click on the button bellow!