When little bear was newborn, I spent a lot of time googling things with him asleep on me. I came across The Imagination Tree and liked the idea of sensory toys because of how they can aid development, and because a lot of them can be made very cheaply from things you might have at home.
These are the first ones I made (l to r) rain stick, ribbon pull, fabric pull tissue box, sensory bottles.
The rain stick is a poster tube which something was delivered in. I tried to get tacks to hammer in, like I'd seen in tutorials but couldn't find any. So I used scrunched up kitchen foil, taped to the inside of the tube. I poured in some lentils we had in the cupboard and taped the ends on firmly. The decoration is brown packing paper with felt tip squiggles (an enjoyable half hour once boy was in bed! )
The ribbon pull (from Imagination Tree) is a Cadbury hot chocolate tin, which I punched holes in and threaded through ribbon from my stash. I used glue dots to secure the lid and covered with paper from my very brief interest in scrapbooking. Wrapping paper would work just as well.
I have actually made 2 of these, the first from an actual tissue box. Little bear destroyed it within days so I put my thinking cap on for what I could use instead. I suddenly had a brainwave -formula tubs! I cut the bottom off 2, and slotted one inside the other, one each way up so it created a box. An oval hole in one end, some pretty paper and fabrics from my stash finished it off (if you don't have a stash of fabrics you could use, lots of shops send out free samples - you want to get different textures eg silk, satin, cotton, corduroy, jersey etc)
I got the idea for the sensory bottles from The Imagination Tree again, and they formed part of little bear's Christmas present when he was 7 months old. One is filled with buttons, one woth ribbons and felt pieces, all of which I had. One has pompoms in, which were about £1 from Tesco, and I had to get glycerine for the liquid one to slow down the glitter (also has washing up liquid in to stop the glitter clumping). I also had to buy the bottles because, being frugal, we don't buy drinks normally (was a pack of 6 value water from Tesco).
I have since made a lolly pop stick pull (Imagination Tree again) from a milk powder tub. This one isn't that successful though as it's really hard to pull out the sticks - I think I need to make the slots I cut into the lid a bit thicker.
Out of all of these, little bear still plays with the fabric tissue box and the sensory bottles the most. I leave them all on an accessible shelf though so he can choose what to play with (or chuck on the floor which is often the case! )
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