Six Fun Toys You Can Make at Home

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Musical Pull Toy

• Cylindrical can with lid (coffee, oatmeal, formula, etc.)
• Colored contact paper
• Stickers
• Scissors
• Lanyard
• Jingle bells
• Hot glue gun
• Clear contact paper or book tape
• Hole punch and hammer

1. Cover can with colored contact paper.
2. Decorate can with stickers.
3. Punch holes in lid and can bottom using hole punch and hammer.
4. Place jingle bells inside can.
5. Thread lanyard through both holes and tie both ends together, making the lanyard loop no more than 18 inches long for child to pull with.
6. Secure lid with hot glue gun.
7. Seal can and edge of lid with clear contact paper or book tape.

Encourage your child to pull the toy while walking around the house. PAT says this encourages your child to develop smooth and efficient movements for walking.

Note: If you already made the Kick the Can toy featured above, you can simply shorten the strings and tie them together to create this pull toy.

Over the course of the year, this toy can also encourage backward movement. But be patient, backward movement should come only after your child is fairly comfortable walking forward.

21 months

Children may start to string words together once they have about 50 words in their vocabulary, or by around 18 months. However, their sentences will usually be missing certain parts of speech, such as adjectives and some verbs. There are plenty of ways to help your child expand and remember his or her vocabulary, though the best way is usually practice. Talk with your baby all the time. Repeat what he or she says and say things the way things should be said (PAT uses the example of when your child says, “Daddy work,” you say, “Yes, Daddy went to work”). The following activity will help your child expand upon the words he or she has already learned by turning the words into phrases.

Word Book

• 4 Ziploc bags (sandwich size)
• 4 pieces of construction paper cut to Ziploc bag size.
• Glue or double sided tape
• Scissors
• Old magazine
• Stapler or sewing machine
• Tape (if stapler is used)
• Marker

1. Sew or staple four Ziploc bags together at closed ends (if stapler is used, put tape over exposed staples).
2. Make a list of eight words the child knows.
3. Look for pictures of those activities or objects in magazines and cut the pictures out.
4. Glue (or use double sided tape) to attach one picture on each side of the four pieces of construction paper.
5. Write the word the child can say under the pictures and add one or two other words to it. (PAT uses the example of writing “big cat” or “the cat is sleeping” for a picture of a cat.)
6. Slip the sheets into the bags and close securely.

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