Sticks and boxes: What are your favourite no-cost toys?

[CBC News]

The lowly stick, a universal plaything powered by a child's imagination, landed in the National Toy Hall of Fame on Thursday along with the Baby Doll and the skateboard.

The three were chosen to join the Strong National Museum of Play's lineup of 38 classics ranging from the bicycle, the kite and Mr. Potato Head, to Crayola crayons, marbles and the Atari 2600 video-game system.

Curators said the stick was a special addition in the spirit of a 2005 inductee, the cardboard box. They praised its all-purpose, no-cost, recreational qualities, noting its ability to serve either as raw material or an appendage transformed in myriad ways by a child's creativity. Read more


What are your favourite no-cost toys?



More...

 

[Nuggler]

:angry3:..........Right. How much did "we" pay for the ****ing stick?

 

[tracy]

Forts, made by using couch cushions and blankets from mom's linen closet. I swear, my brother and I should have become city planners or architects the way we could make a castle out of cushions and blankets.

 

[Scott Free]

Do you mean before or after adolescence?

 

[Lester]

tinker toys were and still are my favs, you could make anything out of them

 

[Ron in Regina]

My Father made rifles for us out'a wood. Traced out on 1x4's...cut out and with a jig-saw
....sanded and stained and lacquered. We played "Cop&Robbers" and "Cowboys&Indians"
and "Soldiers" and "Hunters" and "Explorers." Wood wasn't an expensive medium back then
and these things lasted long enough to be passed on to my Niece and Nephew.

 

[karrie]

Open up the recycling bin and my kids (7 and 8) can make crafts, toys, musical instruments, and any thing else their little minds dream up. It can be hours of fun.

My little niece (honorary status, not genetic) was over the other day and, at three months old, spent almost 15 minutes sitting and playing with a bag of tortilla chips I'd set down on the table. Touching the bag, feeling it crinkle, trying to stick her feet in it, trying to get it in her mouth to lick it, etc. She was completely fascinated with it like I've never seen her fascinated with any other toy.

(legal disclaimer... don't let children play with plastic bags)

 

[karrie]

My Father made rifles for us out'a wood. Traced out on 1x4's...cut out and with a jig-saw
....sanded and stained and lacquered. We played "Cop&Robbers" and "Cowboys&Indians"
and "Soldiers" and "Hunters" and "Explorers." Wood wasn't an expensive medium back then
and these things lasted long enough to be passed on to my Niece and Nephew.

when we'd turn up at a campsite, dad would whittle us knives out of a block of fire wood. Those, and some straws string and dish soap (making giant bubbles is a perfect way to get grimy camping kids cleaned up before meals), would comprise our toys for an entire weekend of camping.

 

[talloola]

When I was a kid, my mom would cut out an empty shredded wheat box, into the shape of a
doll bed, and add a little pillow and blanket, and I would play with that for days and days,
and I did the same for my kids.

 

[karrie]

When I was a kid, my mom would cut out an empty shredded wheat box, into the shape of a
doll bed, and add a little pillow and blanket, and I would play with that for days and days,
and I did the same for my kids.

lol... at my mother in laws I took cereal boxes, pages from old calendars, and masking tape, and made 'laptop computers' for the kids. My daughter's laptop has a picture of a horse. My son's, a picture of a Peace Pipe oil truck. The grandkids fight over the damn things EVERY time.

 

[scratch]

We had a creek running through the west side of the yard and it had an arched stone bridge that crossed it.
That bridge was a fort, a get away place and so many other things that I just can't remember.
Kept us busy though.

 

[AmberEyes]

Hehe the woods was our playground. We used branches/leaves/logs/rocks etc. to build forts and walls and such. We spent a lot of time pretending to be animals. We found "normal" toys to be very boring.. they took the creativity out of everything!

My mom, who is a taxidermist, used to make these wicked dolls with bird skulls, bear teeth, etc. for heads and fuzzy pipe-cleaner bodies. They were kinda creepy, but we played with them all the time.