As many of you know, my partner Helen and I have a fondness for making toys from PVC pipes. We’ve done a PVC pipe construction set, a rain stick and even a wild musical pipe set that at least one reader has copied to great success. Today, I wanted to assure you that we’re not [...]

Lots of people seemed to like the PVC Pipe Construction Set I wrote about a few months ago, including Parent Hacks, GeekDad, and the FemiKnitMafia (whose son got one from us as a present). My partner, ever the engineer, thus set out to build another PVC creation, a musical pipe set inspired by those of [...]

Every young child I know loves to smear things on walls, whether food, paint, or merely dirty hands. Channel that impulse with a three- or four-inch paint roller. It’s not for children who like to bludgeon with such objects, but for others, it can provide a surprising amount of amusement, indoors and out. “Paint the [...]

Flashlights are natural kids’ toys. I’ve never known a child not to be fascinated with the power of shining a spot on the wall. You can buy any number of character-branded ones, but I’ve found that plain but colorful 6″ AA plastic lights are just as attractive to kids. Here are a few activity ideas: [...]

The third installment in this series brings us to duct tape. This isn’t a good toy to give young children directly—it’s hard to handle and can hurt when pulled off skin—but it can be used by you to make all kinds of other toys. I’ve covered an empty two-liter soda bottle with it to create [...]

Dykes and hardware stores seem to go together like, well, dykes and softball.* I therefore thought I’d start a new weekly series for us lesbian moms on kids’ toys you can buy or make based on simple items from the hardware store. (*Yes, I know I’m overgeneralizing. Personally, I’m not at all fond of softball [...]