Making toys for 4 year olds

[Prizen]

Hi all

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good resource for learning how to make children's toys?

Would like to make some nice things for my daughter.

I now that the talented here would just make from their head but I ain't blessed with that knowledge or insight unfortunately!

Thanks

 

[marcros]

I was looking for this for you How To Make a Child's Cart & Bricks - The Knowledge Blog

but stumbled across this too

https://knowledge.axminstertools.com/tag/wooden-toy/

 

[Ollie78]

I remember when I was a kid there was a guy who did wooden toys on tv, there was also a book his name was Blizzard.
Not sure how I remember this because I can barely remember what happened last week !!

I made a hardwood Jenga set for my kids, they love playing jenga but also use it as a construction set for making towers and playing with their other toys, you could throw in triangles, cylinders and other basic shapes too, their imaginations do the rest.

Ollie

 

[Prizen]

Thanks

 

[Cabinetman]

I think you are totally blessed having children of that age, they are wonderful little people, full of excitement and love.
Such fun, but don’t waste time in the workshop, play with them yourself, ( I know, but I do mean it ) when I think back to when mine were that age there just wasn’t enough time in the day to appreciate how fortunate I was, that time passes so quickly and before you know it they have grown out of that wonderful innocent stage. Amazingly my two are wonderful 30 odd's and about to start the whole cycle again – can’t imagine how it happened ha ha. Enjoy it. Ian

 

[TheTiddles]

Pinterest is good for inspiration. Use up your offcuts for money boxes etc.

Here’s one...

 

[Cabinetman]

I made a wonderful wooden Land Rover in beech, angled Perspex windscreen wheels that came off, a design masterpiece. But what they remember is being pushed around the garden pretending to be an aeroplane banking on the corners hanging on for their lives in the wheelbarrow screaming with excitement, and playing with Lego with them, not following the plans of the latest jetfighter but just working out the length of brick they needed and spatial awareness and letting them think what and how to make what was in their imagination, helping, with a little bit of guidance.
It’s now as a grandparent that I get to make the wooden toys for them to smash to bits, I still have the plans for a full-size rocking horse.
Edit! No that would just massage my ego, it would be a whole lot better if I just got on the floor and played with them with their toys that real experts have spent huge amounts of time designing to be interesting, or reading to them.
Prizen, your children’s minds are like sponges and at four years old they need stretching through play. They need you, I know you want to make something for them, to express your love, but from experience just give them your time, they will love you for it, and so will your wife/partner. Ian

 

[sunnybob]

Have to admit, I have a book of how to make wooden toys. I made a few but only my grandson played with them, my grandaughter was always playing with cuddly things, so I suggest old fashioned prams, push chairs, or a crib for the dolls.
But children never remember anything that happens from age 1 to 5, so if thats the age range, dont make it too well as it will be broken and forgotten.
I'm with cabinet man. Play with them while you can. The most played with toys I have ever seen have been large cardboard boxes, because the childs imagination can do anything with one.

 

[Tris]

Most used thing I made for my daughter is the 'toy zoo', the perfect thing to chuck all the soft toys in. Have a quick look online and there's a lot of ideas
Give it a year or two and it'll be 'Dad, can you make me a....?'

 

[akirk]

This is my focus also - my plans for now are to make a set of 'blocks' as that is a very generic toy which allows them to use their imagination, it also allows me to use up scraps of wood - I also plan to make some very simple interlocking walls - some looking like castle walls, some plain - so that again, they can build what they want... It won't stop the time spent playing with children, but is also fun in my own time... we don't have our own children, but lot of nephews and nieces, god-children and friends with young children, so the house is often full of them - helped by having a vast amount of lego here!

 

[Cooper]

I have twin 4 year old grandsons who I make toys for. My most successful is a paper dart launcher. I've made wooden helicopter spinners and periscopes recently. I also have a 2 year old grand daughter I have made a pull along duck and wiggly dogs. If you are interested in any of the pictures happy to give more details. The dart launcher uses elastic bands for the trigger and knicker elastic for the catapult. It was made from old plywood bed slats.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I made a present for my daughter, she used it for five years then passed it on to her brother, who used it for five years more (six years in age between them). It was a blackboard and easel, made of scrap used 2" x 1" and 12mm ply with a channel made from a piece of box section electrical conduit to catch the dust and hold the chalks. They must have played with it for hundreds of hours at zero cost. It was the best thing I ever made for them.

 

[TheTiddles]

But children never remember anything that happens from age 1 to 5,

I can’t help but think this isn’t right, or am
I an anomaly?

Aidan

 

[Stanleymonkey]

Simple garage to fit existing cars - a few angled ramps and levels

Simple wooden truck. Make the trailer big enough to carry toy cars, lego models etc. and they will use it more.

I made a rolling trolley that went under the table - wooden brio train track on top angled track ramp down the side and then it can be connected to floor track and built out into big layouts on rainy days. That was a big hit for many years. can be wheeled away out of sight.

Spent a lot of time making marble run channels and bits. Wasn't massively popular though compared to all the effort put in.

Wish I'd just made something like this!

Wooden rocket - shape some wings on bandsaw / sander. Shape a 34mmx34xx piece of timber into a body. Glue the wings on and let the kids paint it!

Water play - hours and hours of fun. Simple table or bench with two levels - old plastic box with a water butt tap fitted on highest bit. Lower down a little platform where the water can flow over - down to a bucket so they fill the top box up over and over.

You can get simple doll house / play set type things where just 2-4 pieces of md or wood planks slot together with doorways and windows cut into them - good skill builder project. Look at pinterest for ideas.

Lots of comments about spending time with your kids. It's a good point. But if you make simple projects in the evening after they are in bed. (Hand tools or a quiet pillar drill won't upset the neighbours) then you get the best of both worlds.

I will try and find some pictures as I've made a few of these.

Good luck

Martin

 

[sunnybob]

I can’t help but think this isn’t right, or am
I an anomaly?

Aidan

Its either you or me.

 

[TheTiddles]

Here’s another one (it’s quite rough Soyuz-2), but the advantage of using an R-7 based design over an Atlas, Titan or Apollo is that it’s inherently stable on the launchpad/lounge floor which was of course, Korolev’s intention

2 stages naturally, nobody does a single stage to orbit, that’d just be silly

 

[Tris]

Brilliant

That looks like the kind of toy destined to be handed down through the family.

 

[Doris]

Spent a lot of time making marble run channels and bits. Wasn't massively popular though compared to all the effort put in.

Wish I'd just made something like this!
View attachment 92967

I love marble runs even as an adult.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I can’t help but think this isn’t right, or am
I an anomaly?

Aidan

My daughter told me when she was nine that she remembered her great grandmother giving her Freddos. There is no way she could have been told this by anyone else - she was twenty one months old when her g. g. mother died.

 

[Dave Moore]

Hi all

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good resource for learning how to make children's toys?

Would like to make some nice things for my daughter.

I now that the talented here would just make from their head but I ain't blessed with that knowledge or insight unfortunately!

Thanks

Toy making plans.com