10 Easy-To-Craft Educational Toys

I’ve always been a practical crafter. That means that I rarely craft just for pure pleasure, but instead, I like to make something useful.

That’s why making educational toys appeals to me.

Make your own educational toys, and you not only save money, but you are also able to customize the end result. Given that fact that all children have their own little quirks, that’s a big advantage.

1. Multi-Colored Crayons - Release your child’s inner artist with these multi-color crayons. To make, recycle old crayon stubs by heating them till soft, and then remolding them into new crayons.

2. Bottle-Cap Tambourines - Tambourines are a classic preschool toy and for good reason! Tambourines make a great first “instrument”, allowing little ones to develop a sense of rhythm. This set is made from nothing more than a Y-shaped branch, bottle caps and wire.

3. Felt Finger Puppets – Help your child enjoy imaginative play with his own set of finger puppets. Made from felt, these puppets can be as simple or as sophisticated as you choose to make them.

4. Texture Word Book - Introduce young children to a variety of textures, using this fun to create book. Each page contains the name of the texture plus a paper, fabric or other household item. Try crinkled tin foil, sandpaper, velvet and lace.

5. Felt Brown Bag Lunch - Encourage “make-believe” with this very sweet play food set. You’ll use your sewing skills to create everything from a bag of fries to potato chips.

6. Homemade Lacing Cards – Lacing developes both eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills. This set is made from craft foam.

7. Fabric Scrap Memory Game - Memory games can be used to teach colors, letters, shapes or numbers. Use scrapbooking papers, fabrics, rubber stamps or stickers to make your set.

8. Letter Beanbags - Besides being a great way to develop coordination and strength, these beanbags can also be used to teach letters. The author used stencils to apply the letters of the alphabet onto the beanbag fabric. To save time, however, you could also print the letters onto squares of fabric with your inkjet printer.

9. Story Dice - Encourage your children to tell stories with these easy-to-make dice. Simple roll the dice and have your child use the pictures that come up as story starters. To make the dice, just draw pictures on each side of plain wooden blocks.

10. Custom Coloring Pages - Coloring pages are used to teach educational concepts as well as eye-hand coordination. Make your own custom coloring pages using favorite photos or images plus a free graphics program.

Read More : Crafts For Kids or Home

Indoor Hopscotch

Description : The basis for the Indoor Hopscotch is cork squares, that are glued together, and then painted.

Craft Link : Indoor Hopscotch

Source : Krylon

Read More : Decorative Painting or Home

37 Ways To Share Crafts With Kids

If you love crafting, chances are good you want to share that love with your children. Here are some easy (and frugal) ways to help your child also develop an interest in crafting. Pick one option or several…whatever you have time for.

Books (mostly available at the library)

You Can Draw Marvel Characters by Dan Jurgens
Draw Your Own Manga by Haruno Nagatoma
How To Draw People by Susie Hodge
Landscapes by Ian Sidaway
Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Weirdos by Ed Emberley
How To Draw Animals by Susie Hodge
Oodles of Doodles by Mike Artell
Kids Draw Dinosaurs by Christopher Hart
10 Experiments With Impressionism by Betty Billups
Priscilla Hauser’s Decorative Painting Workshop by Priscilla Hauser
Let’s Rock! Rock Painting for Kids by Linda Kranz
Pablo Picasso by Andrew Langley
Pastels by John Blockley
You Can Paint Pastels by Marie Blake
Edgar Degas by Mike Venezia
Painting With Tempera by Paige Henson
Easy Origami by Didier Boursin
Under The Sea Origami by Duy Nguyen
Step by Step Origami by Clive Stevens
Origami Toys by Florence Temko
Crochet by Jane Davis
The Busy Mom’s Book of Quick Crafts for Kids by Judith Logan Lehne
Little Hands Create! by Mary Dall
Big Book of Kids Crafts by BHG

Community Resources

Art and Craft Badges from Scouts
Free Days at Museums
4H Sewing Project

At Home Projects

Study Cartooning
Learn Origami
Build With Scrap Materials
Learn to Sew
Practice Cake Decorating
Learn to Paint With Watercolors
Make Handmade Paper
Create Paper Mache bowls from old newspapers

Online

Craft for Kids – Hundreds of crafts organized by topic or by material
Familyfun.com – Very well done collection of crafts for all ages

Read More : Crafts For Kids or Home

Mother-Daughter Craft Projects

The summer provides a wonderful opportunity to have some 1-on-1 time with your daughter. What better way to spend that time than crafting?

Here are some fun and easy craft projects that will be sure to interest children of a variety of ages!

Paper Bead Jewelry

Computer Crafts

Paper Models

Polymer Clay

Pressed Flower Notecards

Quilling

Cardboard Dollhouse

Dough Crafts

Read More : This And That or Home

Printable Toys For Pre-Teens

These projects are an easy way to introduce non-crafty children to the joys of papercrafts. Not only will the pre-teens enjoy using these printable toys, they will also enjoy the process of creating them.

FREE GAMES FOR OLDER KIDS

FREE CRAFTS FOR OLDER KIDS

FREE TOYS FOR OLDER KIDS

Read More : Print and Cut or Home

Printable Toys For Young Children

Since my children are all adults, and I have very little storage space in my home, I don’t have any toys available for small guests. On the rare occasions that I do have kids visit, I like to make quick, disposable playthings using my computer. Most of the projects listed on this page can be assembled in an hour or less.

Free Toys For Kids

Free Theater Set For Kids

Free Puppets For Kids

Free Playsets For Kids

Free Board Games For Kids

Tips

Printing : Print these projects out on the thickest cardstock that will go through your printer. If only regular paper will go through your printer, paste the printouts onto cardstock using a glue stick.

If you don’t own a color printer, print the projects out in black and white, but on colored paper.

Gluing : Avoid using glue if you can. A good quality glue stick works much better because it doesn’t warp the paper.

Cutting : Make each cut as long as you can. The more individual snips you make, the worse the result.

Read More : Print and Cut or Home

Crafty Dollar Store Gifts For Kids

With the economy on a downhill slide, and the holiday season coming up, everyone is on the lookout for inexpensive gifts this year. If you’d love to give something crafty to the kids in your life, your in luck. Your local dollar store may have just what you’re looking for.

Here are a couple of ideas:

Create an artist’s box. Stuff it full of craft supplies, including scissors, glue, colored pencils, markers, construction paper, stickers, crayons and a sketch pad. Your child will know just what to do with the materials.
Introduce your child to scrapbooking. If you do scrapbooking, your child might enjoy it also. Make a scrapbook kit with an album, stickers, markers, glue and a nice selection of photos. Place everything in a plastic box with a lid.
Present a Decorators gift bag to an older child. Fill it with mirrors, picture frames, imitation flowers, doodads and wall art. Help your child use it to re-do her room.
The dollar store is full of tiny mini-kits. A few cross stitch kits, beading kits, greeting card kits or sand painting kits will make a nice, inexpensive present for pre-teens. Since dollar store packaging is sometimes unattractive, you may want to repackage your gift.
Design a kit of your own. For instance, drop a few packages of glue, coordinated stickers, flat glass marbles and markers into an attractive plastic dollar store container. The child can use the supplies to decorate the container, and then store the leftover materials inside.

Keep in mind that the stock in dollar stores varies from location to location so you might have to try several stores before you find exactly what you are looking for. Or, keep your options open and design your own present from the merchandise available at your local dollar store.

Read More : Craft Tips or Home

« go back

Subscribe To CraftStew

Advertise Here

Advertising Information

Pages

About
2008 Archives
2009 Archives
2010 Archives
2011 Archives
Advertising

Admin

Custom Search

Have you been featured on Craft Stew?

Go ahead... grab our button and let the world know!

Email

adbdoodles at yahoo dot com