We love DIY toys around our house and making toys is often as much fun as playing with them! In fact I might suggest that the true fun of this project is in the making….This little ditty is from our fave, Usborne’s Big Book of Science Things to Make and Do.
Rope Climbing Toy
Materials:
- Heavy Duty cardstock or thin cardboard
- Tape
- Straws- cut into 1 inch lengths
- A coin
- String
- Beads
- Hot Glue
Instructions:
- Step One  Trace and cut your shape out of the cardboard. In this case I had a cardboard girl figure left over from another project that I thought would be fun to use. Things that actually look like they are climbing are good options. My son made a spider, pictured at the end of this post.
- Step Two  Turn the shape over and tape two lengths of straws and a coin to the back of the shape.
- Step Three  Thread a roughly 2- 1/2 foot length of string through the straws as shown.Â
- Step Four  Tie beads onto the end of each piece of string. Secure in place with a dab of hot glue.
That’s it! Now go hang the toy on a doorknob and pull the strings away from each other. The figure will “climb” the rope. As I mentioned before, my son had more fun making his own toy then he did with actually making it climb. Here he is in action:
A word of caution: This is a bit of a fragile toy; my five year old pulled so hard on the strings that the figure kept popping off! If you have a child with a lot of “strength” you may want to use thick string and heavy duty tape.
Leslie says
Just got a fun idea on putting a holiday spin on this! Thanks for the tutorial! SUPER cute spider!!! 😀
Ana Dziengel says
Do tell!