Sarah Wilkins
20 August 2020
Is your kid tired of the same old school-house-playground routine every day? Don’t you have enough time to bring your child to the zoo or amusement park? Are you tired of fixing up old, broken toys instead of buying new ones? Don’t fret, because with our DIY projects for children and parents, you can make do-it-yourself crafts and toys with your kids and have some fun, quality time together.
DIY projects do not require buying materials. In fact, you can use almost anything you can find in your household. They can be those scraps in your husband’s garage or mini-warehouse, your old notebooks, or any other recyclable such as tissue rolls, coloured papers, rubber bands, pieces of cloth, and wooden bits and pieces from your old bed or old doors. You can also use some parts from your kids’ old toys like toy cars’ wheels.
These DIY projects for children and parents can help you spend and save–you get to spend more quality time with your kids and at the same time save your wallet from unnecessary spending. Say goodbye to those expensive, mostly overpriced toys. Making DIY toys and artworks with your kids will not only make you closer to them; you will also be able to help them develop their creativity and imagination.
Ideas for DIY projects for children and parents
Rocket Launcher
You can also make a rocket launcher using an old plastic two litre bottle with pressurised air and water inside it. Turn it upside down, uncap the lid, and let it launch like a true rocket ship. Or better yet, make homemade tops using only a paper and a pencil.
Draw a circle and let your child design it. Using a pencil, punch a hole in its centre and poof, you have made your own spinning top.
Wooden Crafts
Take your child to raid daddy’s garage or utility room and look for nails, screws and wood glues around. Tag him along to collect scraps of wood so you can make your homemade wagons, horse rides and doll houses together.
You can also use Popsicle sticks and make picture frames, stick dolls, rattles and even motorcycles. With these wooden crafts, all of you can participate in working. Mom can design them, Dad can help building them, and Baby can do the painting and finish them with his or her own trinkets.
Recycled Paper Toys
Collect used papers, old tissue rolls, and wheels from your child’s old or broken toy cars to make a DIY car or jet plane. Use the tissue roll’s cardboard core as the body of the car or plane, and cover them with coloured paper cutouts. Have your child design and paint it the way he likes to enhance his or her artistic skills.
You can also assist your daughter as she makes her own hanging dolls out of used papers and yarns. Make her draw people or shapes on pieces of paper or thin cardboards, cut them out, colour them, and tape a yarn or string at the back so you can hang them on the walls of her room.
Science Projects
You see your child struggling with his or her third grade science project and you are caught off-guard with the expense it costs. Worry no more because with a little spark of creativity, you can help your child finish it without spending a lot. Look around the house and gather materials that you think will do the trick like rubber bands, paint, yarns, plastics, papers, wood or anything that can be of use.
With these materials, your child can make his or her model of the solar system that can be submitted in school or displayed in his or her room. Use old newspapers and make ball-like materials out of it so you can have the planets and the sun. Glue them and let them dry. Connect the planets using yarns and colour them accordingly.
Cloth Scraps
Gather old clothes and cut them into pieces so you can make dolls or stuffed animals out of them. Get old however clean socks and make puppets, or create different animals and build an Old McDonald farm with old pieces of cloth.
Use buttons and cutouts for the face, and yarn or strings for the hair. Voila, perfect puppets show starring you and your child. If you lack coloured socks, you can dye them so you get the colour that your child wants.
Marionette or Climbing Doll
Finally, you can make a climbing doll or marionette with the use of old dolls and a few strings. Just tie strings around the dolls’ limbs and let them walk, climb, jump and dance.
These DIY projects for children and parents won’t leave your pockets empty because they are affordable and easy to make. More than anything, the time you spend doing fun and educational things with your kids are among the irreplaceable blessings that cannot be taken for granted.
Seize the free day and enjoy every moment while they’re still young, and take a huge part in their growth, letting them develop their intellectual and emotional quotient through guided activities with people who love them.
