Homemade Toys - Picture Discs

I made this game/toy for my youngest daughter (D2) who is 19 months old and I must say I am so so pleased with the play value it has provided - even my 4 year (D1) old loves it.

Initially I made them just to give D2 a way of looking at photographs.  She absolutely loves sitting at the computer with me looking at pictures of people she recognises so I wanted to find a way that she could do this by herself.  Our efforts have 21 faces but can be as large or small as you like.

They were so simple to make - the trickiest bit will be finding enough jar lids (You could always mount your pics on cardboard but I feel the Jam jar lids make them really easy for little fingers to handle and should give a little more longevity too).

You will need:

• Photos of close friends and family
• Scissors
• A pen/pencil
• Glue (I found the only glue that would hold the pictures firmly in place was super glue)
• Jam jar lids or similar
• Something to cut round (I found a pastry cutter to be the perfect size)
• Half an hours peace and quiet to get the job done.

What to do:

• It really is as simple as cutting out the faces and glueing them in to the discs/lids.
• Leave plenty of time for the glue to dry.

Ways to play:

1. Just allow your child to explore them alone.
2. Look at them together and talk about each person.
3. Play sorting games for example:
• Who lives in our house? (The BigD's family all live in NZ so we do that too)
• men/women
• Adults/Children
• Hair colour
• Explore relationships - "Can you find Daddy's Mummy", etc...

If you dream up another way to play with them then I would love to hear it.  Please leave me a comment below or email with suggestions and I will add them here.

If you liked this post then you may also like to take a look at the "Busy Day" personalised story book we made.

Not suitable for really young children that are likely to put things into their mouths as the glue, I am almost certain, will be full of toxins!