HOMEMADE TOYS: ABUNDANCE OF PLAYTHINGS FOUND AROUND THE HOUSE

Are Christmas toys loosing their luster? A variety of new toys can be found right in your own home.

Homemade toys have a variety of benefits, said Cape Girardeau Parents as Teachers parent educators Susan Bartlett and Karen Enloe.

* They cost less.

* They can be made quickly.

* They can be personalized for your child.

* They can be used for many different activities.

* You can make new ones if they get lost or broken.

* They can be changed as your child grows.

Two-year-old Kameron Groves approves. During a recent visit to his home, parent educator Susan Bartlett brought a variety of home-made toys including a fishing game, a puzzle made from a cereal box and a Ziploc book all made from household items.

Kameron's favorite fishing pole is a dowel rod with a string tied to one end. A magnet is tied to the other end of the string. A metal paper clip is taped to each of the fish.

"If a child is really interested in something, like Dalmatians, you could cut out Dalmatians instead of fish," said Enloe.

Kameron's mother, Kim Groves, said, "The parent educators do have a lot of really neat ideas from the time kids are born.

"Kameron always loves putting stuff in oatmeal containers or other things like that. Sometimes he likes those toys better."

Bartlett said, "Children learn through play. Toys are for the little ones like books are for children in elementary school."

Toys, like the fishing game, help children develop eye-hand coordination. Toys help encourage imagination, and help children develop intellectual and problem-solving skills.

"All these skills pave the road for reading and writing," Bartlett said. "What looks like fun to adults, and should be fun for the child, is real learning."

While toys to help children develop all these skills can be purchased, toys that help encourage the same skills can be made at home.

The educators said while store-bought toys are fine, parents should be cautious about the age toys are designed for. That designation is for safety, not necessarily skills.

For example, shape-sorting toys can be bought, but are too complicated for the youngest children. A coffee can with one hole cut in the lid allows a child to drop objects into it. As the child develops skills, parents can change the lid to make it tougher.

Enloe said, "It's really important for parents to use the things they have at home, not just because it's economical. Children see their parents making toys for them. Those toys are special because mom or dad made it. That sharing you can't buy.

"Also, toys made from household items are familiar to children. They see their parents using those items."

Butter tubs and other plastic containers make good stacking and nesting toys. Parents can hide small toys inside and children can take the lids off and put them back on.

Empty dishwashing detergent bottles, which have been well washed, can be filled with rice or buttons or other objects to make rattles. The lids should be securely fastened with hot glue or sturdy tape.

"Children naturally go to these things because they see their parents using them," Enloe said.

"It's easy to get caught up in how many toys children have and toys that are supposed to be educational," Bartlett said.

"Anything in a child's environment can be educational if a parent is willing to sit and play and talk to the child."

With homemade toys, like all children's toys, safety is the first concern. Toys should be checked again and again to make sure they are safe.

For the youngest babies, a black and white mobile can be easily made. Newborns see black and white designs best. Simple black and white designs, especially faces, drawn on cardboard or paper can be suspended from a hanger or dowel above the crib.

Bartlett said parents can even draw the designs on paper plates and tape them to the side of the crib.

Infants also like crib gyms, which can be made easily at home. Tie objects like small toys or household items like sponges or measuring cups to an empty paper towel tube and suspend the toys over the baby.

When babies begin to reach for toys, these need to be removed.

Enloe said: "From birth to age 1, children move through development rather quickly. Toys that are good at a certain point are not appropriate or even become a danger later on. Children may only use toys like this for two months."

The parent educators say parents should begin introducing children to books at about 6 months of age. They suggest making books from Ziploc sandwich bags.

Cut pieces of construction paper to fit inside each bag, about 3/4 inch shorter and narrower. Glue a picture or photograph to each page, or draw your own. Slip each page into a bag, with the open end of the bag at the right if you want to change the pictures, or to the left to keep the pictures secure. Punch holes in the bags and tie pages together with yarn or ribbon.

The books can be used to remind children of relatives, like grandparents, whom they might not see often.

Children from about 8 to 14 months like to stack and collect toys. Carefully sand rough edges of different size cans, like coffee, vegetable, soup or juice cans. The cans can be covered with contact paper, but they don't have to be.

A favorite puzzle, the educators said, is made from the front of a cereal box. Cut the box into a few large pieces. As the child gets older, cut the puzzle into more pieces.

"Children generally sit and stare at cereal boxes at meals. Those picture are familiar to them," Enloe said.

Puzzles can also be made from old Christmas or greeting cards or from magazine pictures glued to cardboard.

Matching and memory games can be made from catalogs, coloring book pictures or old wallpaper sample books.

Make a puppet out of an old sock. Draw a bright face on the sock with magic markers.

Find some old hats, purses and shoes for dress-up.

Shoe boxes can be a train. Add a short string to make a pull toy. Shoe boxes can also be used as blocks.

Parents can make a flannel story board by covering a stiff piece of poster board with a piece of flannel fabric. Shapes or simple pictures can be cut from felt. "Children love flannel boards. And it helps them learn storytelling, matching, numbers," Enloe said. Books of patterns are available at the public library.

Simple shapes, such as circles, triangle and squares, can be cut from inexpensive vinyl place mats and used for many years.

Children can finger-paint with pudding or shaving cream on a cookie sheet.

Scribbling and drawing lead to writing. Cover tables or the floor with grocery sacks and encourage children to scribble, draw, tear and paste. "Children don't care about a finished product. They enjoy the doing," Bartlett said.

"Parents should remember never to push a child to do a certain activity. Children just know what stage they are at. Parents should encourage what we see them wanting to do," she said.

"Children are natural learners," she added. "Parents should provide lots of experiences and talk to their children a lot. They will naturally learn."