I am making my list of x-mas stuff for this year, and I want to start a handmade portion of our celebration. I remember doing this as a kid and I remember all the gifts we made each other... and none of the others we gifted later on.
My kids at x-mas will be 5, 4, and 2.
For all of them I plan to assemble a dress up suitcase with used clothing... and I want to make them each their own bulletin/ribbon board to hang by their beds so they can put their treasured things up in their rooms. I think this will be fun to go shop for the fabric, but haven't found a pattern yet. Have any of you done this?
I am thinking I will help the 5 and 3 year old boys make a "baby care" gift for my daughter (little cloth diapers, wipes, some old baby bottles, spoons, etc.) I plan to make the diapers and put used real baby care things in as well.
I'm going to have the 5 year old (and 2 year old to what extent she can) make a mail box and letters to pretend with for my 4 year old. He'll love it.
I am struggling with what my 4 and 2 year olds can do for the 5 year old though. He loves cars and trucks, and we have about a million of them, so I'd rather go a different direction from vehicles. Any ideas? Obviously I'd be pretty involved in the creative process for these two... but I'd like something they can help with. I'm drawing a blank.
Thanks for your inspiration! You all are so creative, I'm excited to hear some ideas.
J.
SUCH great ideas! I love the idea of a play mat with our neighborhood on it. It will be educational and fun! My husband and I talked about it last night and this is what we came up with. Our street and neighborhood drawn/painted on a huge drop cloth (canvas probably) that he can unfold and drive his cars on. I especially like the idea of making it our neighborhood. He goes to school a block from here, and his brother's preschool is at the local middle school which is close too. So having those plus our local park will be super fun. My husband suggested playing a bit with the scale and adding our local downtown of Wayzata to the map too - so we can have some destinations. Then he thought we should make the other side a huge race track with pit row and parking lots around it... I'm excited! I'm not sure how much my 3 (to be 4) year old will be able to help... so I might think on some of the other great ideas (a storage case for his cars especially) that Joey can help. If I did a storage case for cars, Joey would love to decorate it for him. I think those two things combined would make a fantastic gift. Thank you again! Any other ideas are more than welcome! I'd love to hear any others for the future!
I was also going to say a play mat with roads, rivers, your house, other places around town. not really sure on how to do it. canvas painter drop cloth, and some puff paint. anyhow i second the first posters ideas they sound fun!!
I love this idea! What fun! Since I don't know your son too well, I can't think up any "generic" ideas, But we make toys out of "junk" around here all the time. My son LOVES to play with some scrap pvc pipe we have in the garage. He stacks it on boxes and "shoots" the cars out. He like to try different heights and angles. Occasionally he'll attempt to make a curve. He could spend hours doing it. The other day is grandparents brought out a hotwheels race track they picked up at a yard sale (basically a big hill the cars race down) and he was a little unimpressed, because "it's stuck, you can't change it like the pipe". Yesterday he and his 2yo sister decided to decorate their track with car stickers. He also has an elevator. It's just an old shoe box with some velcro on the lid, so it doesn't pop open. But he has a bunk bed and plays with it constantly. Cars, figures, legos...everything rides the elevator. His absolute favorite toy is a homemade proton pack. My son is obsessed with ghostbusters. When I saw the prices the 80s toys were going for on ebay, we made our own. I used foam board to make a box around an old broken, backpack. Then we hot glued random things from broken electronics to it and used an old cable for the hose. We also made a ghost trap too. Not saying your son needs a proton pack, but maybe our home made stuff will get you some ideas.
What about making some sort of car mat...similar to those rugs with the roads printed on them? Or making/decorating a carrying case (buy a fishing tackle case and some stickers) for his cars? Homemade play dough with cookie cutters from the dollar store? An oversized checkers game or tic tac toe? Use chalkboard paint and turn something interesting into a chalk board?
How about a ramp or a parking garage for all his cars. You could build it and they could paint it.
I haven't read the other answers, but what about making a garage/display case for your 5-year-old's cars and trucks? That could be really fun for your younger kids to get involved with. Or making your own coloring book for your 5-year-old by going online and finding some coloring pages to print off. Your littler ones could help decide which ones to choose. Or make a book and give it to him of fun things that he can do with family members: baking cookies with you, playing with cars and trucks with his little brother, going on a walk with his little sister, etc.
for cars and trucks....you could make a nice and personal car carrier case...or use boxes and reinforce them with packing tape to make a garage for the cars....a kit could be assembled for either a) a car wash (with tooth brush...a soft cloth for drying) or b) a mechanic garage where funny little tools can be used to "fix" the cars.....
what would be really interesting would be to get a plastic bin of some sort or a crafty little container with sections for cars....and figure out how you can convert one of these into a garage or parking ramp....when you are done playing with the parking ramp or garage....you can store the matchbox cars in them....
another thing that is so so fun for cars is pretty simple....a ramp....can you go to the local hardware and get some sort of plastic flat flexible long narrow pieces (like the edge king stuff that you put in the ground...but not that....just something along those lines) and then you could create long exiting ramps by placing one end on the couch and the other on the floor....making two would be even better for racing with the other kids
just some ideas....good luck, and i commend you for wanting to have your children make gifts....it is going to teach them a lot more about giving....the kind of giving that is what giving should be all about!
Updated
one more thing....my daughter seems to really like felt board sort of toys....make some felt cut out cars and have the young ones decorate them...we also just do construction paper toys too...we glue them and layer them...than i put clear contact paper over them to 'laminate' them....she seriously plays with them like they are dolls...
and now that i'm thinking about it....this would be fun too: if your 5 yr old already has matchbox cars....why not get a big ol' piece of paper....or fabric...and make a town or racetrack on it....if it is fabric, i would make sure it is a heavy denim or you can fuse some heavy fabric to the back with an iron.....if it is going to be paper....think about doing that clear contact paper idea....this could be stored easily by rolling it or folding it up...and as long as you have some streets down, and a bridge here and there, stores, library, gas station, garage, your son can use blocks and toys he already has to build up the town more....just be sure to include a blue lake that the car can roll into, so that the tow truck in town has some business every now and then.....
How about drawing, coloring, painting pictures for his new bulletin board?
