Toddlers love toys. They crave novelty, and are rather fickle: yesterday’s favorite plushy is quickly abandoned for the allure of a new board book. And they love noise’”making it, hearing it, and pressing buttons that elicit it.  Too often, this all adds up to pricey, environmentally unsound trips to plasticland, a.k.a. your local megatoystore.

Instead of littering our planet and your child’s world with nonbiodegradable, not too mention aesthetically revolting, plastic toys, why not make your own? I am a working mom, short on time, who is also rather three-thumbed’”I love the idea of making stuff, but I’m a terrible sewer, can’t cut in a straight line, and am chronically low on patience for such things. So with all this in mind, here are some suggestions for homemade toys that are environmentally sound and, most importantly, highly entertaining to toddlers. Some are more involved than others, but all are easy, quick, and fun to make with your toddler.

1) The Booble-de-Bop

Okay, so if you’re intimidated by crafty stuff, this is the place to start. Place a shiny plastic object (we use a string of hot pink Mardi Gras-style plastic beads of unknown provenance) inside a plastic bottle. Close it tight. Let the great rumpus begin! The sound on your hardwood floors will make you want to jump out of a window, but your kid will be entertained for hours. For slightly older kids, attach googly eyes, bells, boas, etc. (all cheap and easily found at your local crafts shops).

2) Toddler Cars

This takes the age-old concept of the empty cardboard box toy and pumps it up a few notches. Cut off the top and bottom of a box big enough for your kid to fit in. Punch holes on either side of the front and rear and attach some thick string front-to-back for shoulder straps. Add paper plate wheels, as well as a steering wheel. Accessorize with cardboard, old t.p. rolls, and whatever else you have in your art/recycle bin to create racing stripes, wipers, and horns. Ours is a hybrid, of course’¦

3) Doll House/ Mouse House/Chateau de Kid

I was obsessed with dollhouses when I was a kid, and with creating mouse families to  inhabit them. But the plastic ones are tacky as hell, and the wooden ones are so pricey you’ll need a sub-prime mortgage. Instead, use old shoe boxes to create doll/mouse houses, condos, and chateaux. A little non-toxic paint, some cut-out windows, and some old fabric for rugs, wallpaper, etc., and you and your kid can let loose with your inner decorators! Toy mice (a.k.a. cat toys) are easily found at pet stores, if your child is, like me, inexplicably drawn to the familias musculus. Or you can create paper dolls easily out of’¦paper. Either way, this is one of those projects that allows your kids’ imagination to really flower.

4) Puppets (Retooled Plushies)

If you’re like us, you’ve received a bazillion stuffed animals as gifts for your tot, most of which remain ignored on the shelf. Here’s a great idea: turn that lonely plushy into a dynamic puppet. Find the seam on the back of underside of the plushy, and remove stitches with a seam ripper. Remove the stuffing, hand stitch the edges of the opening, and voila!’”you’ve made a puppet. You could add googly eyes, extra felt hands, dino scales, crowns, or whatever else will give your puppet personality and tot appeal.

5) Color Books

If you’ve been following my columns, you knew that I’d have to include at least one book-making project! Here’s a really basic one: Take bracketed color folders and fill them with matching color paper. Then, you and your toddler can choose images from magazine, ads, and other print materials in that color. Older kids can write the name of each item underneath it (or something more imaginative–a story connecting the objects, perhaps). You can also add actual items in that color, such as ribbons, coasters, bells, fabric, etc. This makes a great gift, too.

Okay, so what other cheap/free/recycled handmade toys have you made? Which ones did your toddlers love the most? Which bombed?

Photo credit: stock.xchng.