Mother Nature Network

unconsumption:

Stickers + empty cartons = fire trucks! 

Why not turn packaging into simple toys?

Reusable stickers, printed on 100% recycled, uncoated paper, via Box Play for Kids, mentioned previously on Unconsumption here. 

treehugger:

100 famous Italian designers each made a toy car out of one block of wood. There’s so much creativity and variety in the designs. These, like your kids, should get better with age! 

Santa Claus is Chinese
About 80 percent of the toys sold in the United States are made in China.

cupandpenny:

pick-up sticks: DIY tutorial

Here’s another back-to-school project I made for my kids when they’re stuck inside for Rainy Day Recess. I’m particularly proud of this project because I made it up myself (without the help of the internets)! The entire project was made from materials I already had: a whiskey tin from our trip to Edinburgh last year (SHH! don’t tell the kids!), a can of pale pink spray-paint I used for a school art project last year, and wooden skewers from our kitchen (like the kind you would use for shishkebabs). 

1. Spray-paint your tin (a tall slender jar would work too). I did several coats.
2. Cut wooden skewers to desired length so they fit inside the tin. I just used a regular pair of scissors.
3. Color the ends of the sticks with regular old markers. I made sticks in the following colors: 
1 black
7 reds
7 blues
8 greens
7 yellows
4. Put a label on the tin showing the point values for each color stick. 
Black = 25 pts
Red = 10 pts
Blue = 5 pts
Green = 2 pts
Yellow = 1 pt
5. Give it to the kids and see how it goes! I loved Pick-Up Sticks when I was a kid; my grandparents had the old-school black tin, and I have fond memories of playing it in their basement whenever I visited. 

Today’s toys often require assembly, batteries and lengthy instruction booklets — and many come with shockingly high price tags. But sometimes the simplest, most basic toys are the very ones that entertain children for hours and inspire them to use their imaginations. What makes these toys even better is that you can make many of them from household items you already have.

Kinetic Creatures: The cardboard robots that kids can build
The cool kits bing to life a paper elephant, rhino or giraffe through tab-and-slot construction and some brilliant design.

PETA slams Whale Trainer Barbie
Mattel’s SeaWorld-themed doll draws ire in the wake of animal abuse allegations and the tragic death of a trainer.

Why pseudo-realistics toys still creep us out
The uncanny valley suggests that a human appearance or behavior can make an artificial figure seem more familiar for viewers — but only up to a point.

Astronaut builds LEGO space station replica — in space
Due to a flammability hazard, the two-foot long model could only be exposed in the open cabin air for two hours.