Home made Toys and Games
When starting out day care I tried to think of enjoyable activities for the children that I could make.
Fire Box: Take a shoebox and cut an oval shape in the top. Fill it with little toys or assortment of stuff like a baby nipple, ruler, paintbrush, tooth brush holder, plastic animals, block. Crayon, small doll, and etc. Then I add a little box of wood matches and a book of matches with the heads (end that burns) cut off, and an empty lighter. I then explain to the children what things are safe to play with and what is unsafe to play with. The children close their eyes and take turns pulling items from the box. If the item is safe to play with, the child may keep it. If during the game they pick the matches or lighter, the game stops and they put all toys back and the game starts over. The object of the game is to reinforce that a child should not play with matches or lighters. When parents see any of these around the home, they should discourage the child from touching them.
Matching Games: Put stickers on lids from frozen juice cans to make pairs of each kind and lay them on a table. Each child gets to turn two over and if they match, they can keep the pair and go on until they fail to get a match. Then the next child gets a turn. You can also match big letter with little letters for the ABC's. To have higher success rates for the younger children, use fewer sets of pairs.
Patterning: Using the same type of lids with stickers on, let the children pair up and work together or alone making patterns, like two dinosaurs, then a car, then they would have to put two dinosaurs next. You can make lids with colors on, shapes, numbers, and almost any kind of stickers.
More or Less: Use the same lids and use them with math skills of more or less or just counting them out with the littler ones.
Drop in the Can: If you have a tine coffee can, or a baby milk tin can, cut a slit in the plastic top. Children as young a siting up age can keep busy for the longest time listening to the sound of the juice lids clinking as they drop them into the can. This is a great high chair toy while you do activities with older children. This is a great hand-eye coordination activity.
Sorting Games: Take a cupcake tin and have children sort thing like counting bears, money buttons, color cubes, beads, colored puff balls, or little Lego pieces. Variation: Put numbers in each space and have the children put that many objects in each space.
