Homemade Rattles

Our house has been taken over by baby stuff!  Stuff that the babe plays with for a minute and then abandons.  It seems he is most interested in what mommy and daddy are holding.  So, I thought it might make sense to make some homemade toys - saving money and giving him items he has seen us using.

For a whopping ZERO dollars I made the following two toys:

I liked using food containers because the materials used in the package are food-grade (unlike a container for, say, dishwasher soap).  The soup container was clear, so I colored the noodles with markers to give a bit more visual interest. I liked the stripes on the Pringles can below (it was a special edition can), but you could cover the tube in paper with pictures.  The nice thing about the Pringles can is it has metal on the bottom - resulting in more noise when the noodles hit that end.

Materials: 

• stable food container
• pasta (colored or plain)
• or any other safe 'noise maker'
• glue to seal (I used non-toxic glue that was 0.01 on sale at Staples)
• IMPORTANT to seal or the toy can become a choking hazard

I think he likes it!!  I'm happy to not spend another $5+ on a baby toy, happy to 'up-cycle' items from our kitchen, and happy that the babe is entertained!

Have you made any homemade toys?