Toys to Build for the Young and the Young at Heart

Carefully crafted handmade toys can become family heirlooms passed from generation to generation. If you have a workshop and some scraps of wood and a few dowels, you can make the wooden toys, and the puzzles and games in these articles.

Wooden toys last forever and if you make the toy, the child in your life is sure to love it. Some of these handmade toys are as simple as a scrap of fabric attached to a thread spool to make a parachute.

There is a toy here for every aged child and every level of toy builder.

Wooden Toys

Toys for a Lifetime: Circus Train 
December/January 1997
You may have more fun making this wooden train with colorful circus animals than the kids will have playing with it.

Old-Timey Toys 
November/December 1980
Patterns, instructions and diagrams for building a wooden rocking horse and dump truck.

Toys from Mother's Workshop 
November/December 1981
Build these fun-to-play-with toys for a child in your life: bantam backhoe, wooden soldier and a teeter-tot tunnel slide.

A Trio Of Homemade Toys
November/December 1982
You probably already have the odds and ends necessary to make these great old-time playthings: a boom crane, buzz bomber and doll cradle.

A Rubber-Band Rifle 
January/February 1982 
Sometimes winter's weather leaves children little choice but to busy themselves indoors. Here's a way to make a stay-at-home rubber-band rifle that's amusing and instructive as well.

Puzzles and Games

Mitey Maze 
November/December 1987 
Make this simple wood and wire maze toy that will keep young hands and minds happily occupied, including diagram, and instructions.

Homemade Toys
November/December 1974
Make these seven old-fashioned, handmade toys and have fun with your kids today.

Old-Timey Toys From Christmas Past 
November/December 1978
You can make these hand and wooden pull toys from recycled materials: pull duck, dog and car; parachute, spear the fish and a shape puzzle; flipper carnival man; baseball player; two-tone whistle, and a wooden snapper.

Six Fun Toys You Can Make at Home
December 2008 
Bring the fun of handmade toys to new heights with these simple instructions for recycled, educational toys for toddlers.