I thought I'd start a thread for everyone to add any simple ideas for homemade toys....

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Get an empty 125ml bottle. Fill it with water, add glitter & 3 or 4 coloured pebbles. Cut a kitchen sponge into fish shapes (or any other shape) and add them - it's best to cut the sponge in half as well otherwise it will be too thick. Superglue the lid on.

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Get another 125ml bottle. Add a few large beads or bells - these are for the rattley noise. Add in some coloured feathers, ribbon, small pom-poms (anything brightly coloured. Superglue the lid on.

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Get a mesh laundry bag & fill it with coloured cellaphane & coloured foil papers. It makes a nice crunchy sound & if bub chews on the bag it won't hurt their gums at all. (If you like, you can use empty potato chip packets for the same effect.)

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This one is hard to explain so bare with me!!!
Get an empty ice cream container & cut a hole in the bottle big enough for little hands to fit in. Cut out a seperate ice cream container lid (you need 2) so it fits inside the container, but won't come through the hole in the bottom. Get a bunch of kids handkerchiefs (maybe 7 or 8) and knot them together in a row (you know like clowns have?!). Put a hole in the ice cream lid you cut out & thread one of the hankies through and tie a knot in it. Put them all in the ice cream container & put the lid on (the lid side is now the bottom). So what you'll have is something like a tissue box. Apparently babies like to pull tissues out of the box & this way they can, but they won't come entirely out because the other lid inside the box stops them. Hope that makes sense!! If you want, you can use brightly coloured contact to fancy up the container.

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Another ice cream container one... Get a tennis ball & a ping pong ball. Cut hole in the lid of the ice cream container big enough for the balls to fit it in & that's it!! It's a simple version of the shape sorting toys you can buy.

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