Gift ideas for my soon to be 2yo

[FreeRangeMama]

It is my ds' birthday in less than a week, and due to some financial problems we don't have any money to buy him a present Anyway, I thought I might make him something but have no idea what to make. Any ideas for some cheap (or free) ideas that a 2 year old will like?
Thanks in advance
Laurie

[Sandra Dee]

thinking.

will get back to you tonight

[jjquilter]

How about...

Bean bags/juggling balls

What do you have in the house? It all depends on what you have around...

I'm pretty good about making something out of nothing... what's in your inventory and I'll come up with some other ideas.

jj

[FreeRangeMama]

Well..... I have lots of different stuff, its hard to know where to start. I had an idea to find an old suitcase and fill it with dress up clothes, but he might be a little young to enjoy it. I used to supply vintage clothes to a store in another city but got tired of dragging a baby and a big box of clothes to the post office so I have quite a few great old clothes. The only thing is he might be a little young to really enjoy it, he is only begging to find the fun in dress up. What kind of things would be good for that?
As far as supplies, I do alot of crafts. I tie dye, crochet, try to sew (I'm still learning), make candles, stuff like that. I also have supplies for ds, mainly paint, pipecleaners, crayons, beads, popsicle sticks, and the like. We have also been doing some landscaping and renovations so I have some of those types of supplies (scraps of wood, etc). I also have a fairly empty recycling bin with a few bottles and boxes and stuff. I know there should be lots of things I could come up with, but I am drawing a blank. I think I will make some bean bags, I think he would like those. Any other ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help!
Laurie

[AnnR33]

My 18 mos and 4 yr old LOVE the bean bags I made in all different shapes and sizes. I don't think you can go wrong with them-I filled mine with popcorn and they have a nice bean bag sound-beans are good too.

You can also make a cape out of some extra material or old towel you may have. You can sew on some patches in different shapes too to spice it up. Velcro at the neck should be pretty safe.

If you have some wooden clothespins you can decorate them with little pompoms in a row like caterpillars-just add some little eyes (if you're past the everything in the mouth stage-otherwise it would be a choking hazard.) My kids love those too, they love to hang them on their clothes.

How about a book with pictures of your family and his favorite things? It's fun and educational if you put the letters or words for each item. You can use construction paper and contact paper and tie the seam with yarn. Fun and easy-same idea for "flash cards" but use heavier paper.

Put some shaving cream and food coloring in a ziplock bag and tape the closure shut with packing tape (get all the air out first). This makes a great sensory touch "toy" It's soft and mushy and they can draw things in the stuff with their fingers but no mess!!

I don't know how to make playdough but that's another option-you can get a recipe from your library I bet. Decorate some yogurt or butter containers and tadaa!
Good luck!!
Ann

[oncewerewise]

I think there's a thread in the Toddler Forum full of craft ideas that has a playdough recipe and other types of recipes for craft stuff. I'd try to find the link for you, but it's late and I'm sleepy. My daughter loves playing with her bean bags.

My ideas after reading your list:

-- a theatre built out of wood or an old box, add fabric for a curtain and puppets and or characters cut out of paper (either from magazines or drawn) and pasted to cardboard and glued to popsicle sticks... you can make a story and present it PLUS he gets to keep the toys!!!

-- a kit of crafts, hand-made picture frames, whatever, put a bunch of fun stuff (crayons, glue, paper, etc.) in a basket and draw a picture of what you will make together and put it on the outside

-- musical instruments, along the same lines as the bean bag, get an empty plastic bottle (500mL, for example) and fill with about 1/3 cup beans, fill a larger one with popcorn (unpopped!) for a louder sound, cover with paper maiche (sp?) and paint, make a drum out of a tin can (empty coffee or hot chocolate, no sharp edges) and cover tightly with firm fabric and secure with elastics, you could paper maiche over that as well to cover up the elastics or just paint the can and snip the fabric edges to look funky

I also like the playdough idea if you have containers to put it in that will keep it for a while you could make a few with different colours (if you're okay with a couple drops of food colouring).

Have fun!!! Let us know what you do and how your ds likes it!!!

Peace.

[hydrangea]

Beanbags in the shapes of frogs are really cute.

In terms of dress-up stuff, I would think that at this age he might at thte least enjoy hats and props.

Big, square, hemmed cloths are wonderful (longer rectangular ones are nice too). The silk and gauze ones are very Waldorfy and extra nice, but you can make them out of whatever you have. My daughters use them for capes, for dresses, on the floor as water or grass (depending on the color), over backs of chairs for tents, and a myriad of other things. You can also tell stories using them.

You could also make a storytelling felt board (cover a board, even cardboard, with felt -- light blue is a nice neutral background color), and cut out of characters to put on the board. Dyed carded wool is also fun to play with on a felt board. Do an internet search for lots of ideas on felt boards.

Maybe you could make him some blocks out of wood scraps. Just sand them well.

[jjquilter]

One of my favourite toys as a kid was a little 'house' my dad built out of wood. Basically, it was a room about 4x4x4 made out of plywood with a ceiling and a light. It had a little table and a phone and a window and I used to love playing in there. I had a box of crayons and could crayon the walls without bothering my parents.

You can make such a thing easily out of cardboard boxes or scrap wood and put it in the living room (if you have space). It can even have that curtain for a dressup-theatre area. Hats are great for kids that age too -- my aunt owned a bridal store and used to get us old hats from the shop that were FABULOUS to play with.

The other thing you can do is have "special activity day" in honour of your ds's birthday. We do this in our family instead of giving gifts and it makes us feel so special to have nice things done for us all day. You can have him put on a 'special' or favourite outfit, and have a bunch of activities set up for him, including going to the park with a new 'cape,' making playdoh or those cool shaving cream bags that AnnR33 mentioned, making cookies/kitchen things to eat, making a 'fancy' lunch.

jj

[Elismama]

wow, such great ideas here

Here is my contribution- I have an ancient Mothering magazine with a simple pattern for a "Puffet-" a puppet that looks rather like a Muppet. I made one for Eli out of green felt- looks just like Kermit the frog- took less than an hour to make and the materials were: googly eyes, felt (could use cloth), piece of a cereal box, thread. If you have yarn around you could add hair.

I would be happy to photocopy the pattern and instructions and mail them to you if you PM me your address. Or I could get my husband to scan them in and email them to you.

I also made a snake puppet by sewing together three pieces of felt- kinda hard to explain. But Eli decorated it with pom poms and fabric scraps, googly eyes, and a long red tongue. We are big on puppets here.

Beanbags are also big here- we throw them, we play hide and seek with them, etc.

Once I took pictures from magazines and laminated them, cut them out and attached magnets. This was a great travel toy with a cookie sheet- the magnets still get use on our fridge.


Here is a playdough recipe:
Playdough
1 cup water
1Tbl vegetable oil
½ cup salt
1 Tbl cream of tartar
Food coloring
1 cup flour

Combine the water, oil, salt, cream of tartar, and food coloring in a saucepan and heat until warm. Remove from heat and add the flour. Stir and then knead until smooth. Store in an airtight container or Ziploc freezer bag.
*** This is a great recipe, but don’t leave out the cream of tartar- it really makes it nicer


You know- my Eli's favorite things are found household items or homemade things. His current favorites-
Daddy's shaving brush in the bath tub
A turtle we made out of a paper bowl and plate and felt (we like felt), with markers and googly eyes for
A broken ping pong paddle that he found on a walk and uses as a guitar
Juggling balls with which he plays "rough ball-" a game he created, and only he understands the rules...

Happy birthday to your little one, and happy birthing day to you mama!

-jeanie

[FreeRangeMama]

Wow! Thanks for all the ideas. I don't have much spare time between now and Saturday (which is when we are having his party) but some of these ideas I will save for later. We do all homemade gifts for xmas so I think I will plan on making him a theater or dollhouse for then. We also do lots of arts and crafts so I think some of these activities will be great for that.

For his birthday....so far I am going to make the bean bags (I cut up a bunch of the vintage fabrics and old clothes we have around so they really going to be colorful and all different textures). I think I will wrap those up with a big happy face bucket so he has somewhere to throw them. I am also going to hit Salvation Army today and look for a colorful old suitcase to fill with clothes. I went through my stash of clothes and found some great old western shirts, 4 bright ties (which I tied really loosely so he can slip them over his head), some belts (which he loves-he stole mine LOL), a couple of great big sparkly scarves, and a couple of hats. I will look for some more hats and a big pair of boots (they had a big bin of brand new adult sized rubber boots for FREE last time I was there). I think I will also make him a couple of really cool capes, I think I even have some velcro I can recycle. I also think I will make him some puppets, maybe just sock puppets with big button eyes and yarn hair since I am pressed for time, but I will definately be making more puppets soon.
I like the idea of a special activity day. We don't like to make a big, monetary thing out of birthdays (we were originally going to make him a sandbox for the back yard), but like to focus on family instead. I am going to make him a cake in the shape of a spider, and we are going to have a big family dinner in honour of him (both sets of grandparents, aunties, uncles).
Thanks again for all your ideas! Keep em coming, I want to make him a couple of nice things for when the new baby is born (big brother gifts) so all ideas are appreciated.
Thanks!
Laurie

[Sandra Dee]

I emailed ya!

[FreeRangeMama]

Thanks Momschooling,
I e-mailed you back. Your great!
Laurie