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• Cover corners with shoulder pads

A great way to protect children who have just started walking is with a pair of old shoulder pads. Cut open the long straight side and slip the pad over a corner so the inner padding encases the edges. Adjust as needed and then tape the pad securely in place. Hiding the pads under an attractive cloth will look better and stop curious youngsters from disturbing them.

• Colourful Band-Aids

When a child has fallen down and scraped his elbow or knee and you’re trying to console him, to no avail, try distracting him by having him decorate his own Band-Aid while you gently clean the wound with a dab of soapy water and antiseptic cream. While you work, he’ll be busy with a few plain Band-Aids and a rainbow of non-toxic, water-based markers, letting his imagination run wild. Then he can wear personalized Band-Aids as works of art.

• Freeze stuffed toys for allergic children

Forestall sniffles in allergy-prone children by giving their stuffed toys the deep freeze for 3-5 hours, once a week. Slip the toy into a freezer bag, place it among the frozen peas and ice cubes and any dust mites will be killed.

• Two tip-to-toe uses for fabric-softener sheets

If joggers smell like something has died inside them, stuff each shoe with a fabric-softener sheet every night to lessen the odour. And solve a flyaway hair problem by rubbing your child’s hair with a softener sheet to control static.

• New use for an old aquarium

An unused aquarium or fishbowl can be transformed into a fascinating 3-D decoration for a child’s room — and your child can pick the theme and do much of the work. Start by cleaning and disinfecting the tank or bowl. Then paint the inside of the glass with a diluted mixture of water and water-soluble craft paint to create the look of ocean water, blue sky, billowy clouds, rainbows, green fields or even abstract designs. The paint should be thin enough to see through, so test it for transparency and thin with more water as needed. On the bottom of the tank, spread a fairly thick layer (5cm or more) of sand or fish bowl pebbles. Now let your child choose what goes inside.

• Quick clean-ups

By their very nature, children and dirt go hand-in-hand. Here are some easy ideas to keep your home clean using basic household supplies:

1. Plastic or painted wooden toys Clean these with a paste made of 2 parts bicarbonate of soda to 1 part washing-up liquid. Apply with a soft cloth. Use a toothbrush to work the paste into small spaces. If the dirt is really stubborn, leave the paste on for a while. Remove it with a damp cloth or sponge.
2. Outdoor toys and children’s vehicles Rub with full-strength white vinegar, applied with a cloth. Remove the residue with a damp cloth or sponge or hose it off and dry with a clean cloth or towel.
3. Stuffed toys Clean unwashable toys by putting them in a plastic or paper bag, adding about a cup of bicarbonate of soda and shaking the bag for 30 seconds or so. When the toys look and smell clean, remove bicarbonate of soda residue by either vacuuming the toys with your machine’s brush attachment or shaking them in the open air and brushing off any residue with your fingers.
4. Crayon marks on washable wallpaper Try warming the marks with a hair dryer. Give it a minute, and then wipe the marks away with a damp cloth. Another idea is to apply a coat of latex glue to the marks, let it dry thoroughly and then gently rolls off the rubbery glue.
5. Vomit or urine on a rug first, wipes up what you can. Pour bicarbonate of soda onto the affected area, pat it in with a paper towel and let it dry completely before vacuuming up the residue. Bicarbonate of soda will clean, sanitize and deodorize the spot. Use the same method to clean a wet mattress.

• Dry a baby’s beanie on a balloon

Machine drying a baby’s bonnet or beanie, even on the delicate cycle, often leaves it looking wrinkled, limp and less than pretty. To solve the problem, inflate a balloon to the approximate size of the child’s head, tie it securely and attach it to a smooth surface with tape (away from baby’s reach). Slip the washed and still-damp beanie or bonnet over the balloon. With your hands, lightly smooth out creases and gently shape the bonnet and brim. ‘Press’ ribbons and ties by running them through your fingers and laying them out straight.

When the bonnet is dry, pop the balloon and discard it. A few touch-ups with a warm iron will have the bonnet looking as good as new.

• Secure sewing with dental floss

If you are tired of lost or dangling buttons on your children’s coats and jackets, substitute dental floss for sewing thread to get a strong, longer-lasting hold. Also use dental floss when replacing buttons, eyes and ears, and stitching ripped seams, in stuffed toys.

• Tape your troubles away

When toy boxes, paperback book spines and colouring books are falling apart, use clear parcel tape to reinforce the corners, spines and edges.

• Glitter from salt

Bring some glitz to children’s projects by mixing 1 tablespoon liquid water colour with 2 tablespoons table salt or rock salt, then shake the salt and colouring in a plastic bag to distribute the colour evenly. Spread the mixture on paper towels on a flat microwaveable plate and microwave on High for 2 minutes. Cool and break up clumps with your fingers. Store in a dry, airtight container.

• Play dough hair with a garlic press

Roll up a small ball of play dough, put it in a garlic press and slowly press out the strands. Use a small paintbrush to dab a little water on the spot where a strand will be attached; then press the piece in place with a toothpick or the pointed end of a small knitting needle.

• Pasta art

Even little children can make beautiful abstract designs with this old favourite: look in your cupboard for stray, half-empty boxes of dried pasta. Make different shapes and sizes by breaking up long strands of spaghetti and lasagna, add small macaroni pieces and colour as desired with non-toxic food colouring. When dry, the possibilities are endless:

1. Make a personal treasure chest by covering the top and sides of a shoe or cigar box with the pasta, using craft glue.
2. Draw designs on folded construction paper or card stock and glue on pasta for a personal holiday or birthday card.
3. String coloured macaroni or any tubular pasta to make necklaces and bracelets.
4. Glue pasta shapes to hairclips, bobby pins and even belt buckles.

• Homemade bubbles

The ingredients for homemade bubble-blowing liquid can be found at your kitchen sink — washing-up liquid and water. Pour about 2 table-spoons washing-up liquid into a plastic measuring jug and fill with tap water (1 part washing-up liquid to 15 parts water), then mix gently. This bubble solution performs best when left to sit overnight before use. Hard water will yield poor results, so test your tap water by making a small batch of solution. If you can’t get bubbles to appear, switch to distilled water.

• Making play dough sculptures

Why buy colourful sculpting dough when you and your child can make your own from inexpensive cupboard staples? Here’s how: mix 1/2 cup (90g) salt together with 1 cup (140g) flour. Using your fist, make a deep indent in the mixture and pour in 2/3 cup (180ml) water. To add colour, simply use some non-toxic water colour paint or food colouring. Knead well and shape into a ball. Roll out and hand your child some blunt-edged biscuit cutters to cut out shapes, mould into sculptures or make into ornaments. Store it in an airtight container, and you’ll be able to use it again.

• Make your own super slime

Slime is a favourite of children everywhere. To make it, combine 1 teaspoon ground psyllium husks (available from pharmacies, health food shops and online) with 1 cup (250ml) water in a lidded jar and shake vigorously for 3 minutes. Pour into a microwaveable container and add a few drops of green food colouring. Microwave on High for 3 minutes (stop the process if the slime starts to ooze out the top of the container). Let rest for 3 minutes and microwave for another 5 minutes. Remove carefully and let cool for an hour. Store in an airtight container.

• A kitchen cupboard toy box

Most babies know that the kitchen is where the real action is: it’s full of shiny things, interesting sounds, yummy smells and — food. It’s always important to childproof your kitchen, to install safety latches and plugs, and to make sure that anything even remotely dangerous is out of reach. Once you’ve done this, you can designate one floor cupboard to be a baby’s kitchen toy box and stock it with a few specific items that your child can play with: smaller pans and lids, a few plastic containers, a wooden spoon, a sturdy set of measuring spoons and nesting metal measuring cups that he can bang to his heart’s content.

• Shake, rattle and roll

Some metal and plastic food packaging, such as a Pringles chip box, comes with a plastic lid. Turn them into fun noisemakers by cleaning and drying an empty can or canister, making absolutely sure that all sharp edges have been removed or filed down and putting in a small amount of dry pasta, cereal, hard lollies, dried beans or rice. Secure the plastic lid with gaffer tape, testing the noisemaker to be certain the top won’t come off. A quieter alternative is to put crunchy cereal into a cardboard biscuit box and secure the top with tape. When rolled on the floor, this homemade rattler makes a great swooshing sound.

• From milk bottle to toy caddy

If there are too many small toys under your feet, you can bring some order to the toy invasion by making a simple toy carrier from an empty 4-litre juice bottle or household bleach container with a handle. With scissors or a utility knife, carefully cut a large opening out of the top third of the bottle, leaving the handle area and the plastic cap intact. Cover the cut edge with gaffer or masking tape (although the cut edge could be filed or sanded smooth, taping gives extra protection). Let your child decorate the carrier with permanent markers and then fill it with small toys. It may be a good idea to create a toy caddy for each child in your family, to avoid disputes that inevitably erupt at playtime!

• Invisible lemon-juice ‘ink’

If your child has a taste for the mysterious, teach him the secret of invisible writing. All that’s required is a small bowl of lemon juice, a cotton bud and a piece of paper. Dip the bud in the juice and write on the paper. When the paper is dry, there will be no sign of the lemon-juice ‘ink’. Then hold the paper near to, but not touching, a hot light bulb, moving the paper slowly over the beat source. Magically, the writing will turn brown and legible —it’s a trick worthy of Harry Potter and his friends.

• An egg carton game

 Here is a fun activity that can help pre-school children to master counting and sorting skills. With a marker, write the numbers 1 to 12 (or 15) in the sections of a large egg carton. Then provide edible items such as shaped cereal or raisins and get the child to put the right amount in each numbered section. You can play a similar sorting game by having him separate different shapes and colours of cereal, dry pasta or dried beans.

Alternately, give the child a bowl of raw fruit and vegetable pieces — sliced carrots and apples, peas, grapes, mandarin segments, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, small button mushrooms —whatever you have on hand and get him to sort the food into the egg sections by type.

• Food colouring to brighten snowy-day play

After they have pelted one another with snowballs, children can get fidgety for more fun on a snowy day, so try this: fill several plastic squirt bottles — tomato-sauce bottles are ideal —with water and add a few drops of food colouring to each. Children can ‘draw’ designs on the snow with the coloured water.

• A carrier for precious papers

School children occasionally have important papers or homework to take to school — such as term projects that ate up hours of their time (not to mention yours!). Tubes from rolls of paper towels, standard-size plastic wrap, aluminium foil or waxed paper are just the right size for A4 sheets of paper. For larger projects, think about saving longer tubes from wrapping paper or oversized aluminium foil. Be careful not to cram too much into a cardboard tube, though, or the papers could be difficult to extract, coming out in less-than-ideal condition.

• Educational floaty toys

If you are teaching your child to recognize letters or to spell her name, buy some inexpensive floating craft foam from your local craft shop. Available in bright colours, they can be cut to resemble every letter of the alphabet, making them perfect for bath-time learning. Or cut out some numbers and teach her to count.

• Playthings from the kitchen cupboard

Many of the best bath-time toys are likely to be found in the kitchen. Plastic food containers like margarine/butter tubs, measuring spoons, large cooking spoons, funnels, colanders, cups, milk cartons — if it floats, pours, stirs or drips, it will inspire your child’s imagination. Plastic lids become floating platforms. Funnels create waterfalls. Plastic mesh fruit baskets will create masses of bubbles in soapy water. (It’s best to avoid wooden and metal items; wood will splinter and get mildewed and metal rusts.) Simple, sturdy plastic items are safe and easy to clean; just wipe down plastic bath toys routinely with a water and bicarbonate of soda solution or run them through the dishwasher.

• Go fishing with a kitchen strainer

A small plastic vegetable strainer lets toddlers scoop up sponges or shapes cut from craft foam and promotes hand-eye coordination, too. An aquarium net will also work. (Thoroughly wash and disinfect a used net first.) Help your toddler to drop her ‘catch’ into a plastic container and count the items together when she gets tired of fishing in the tub.

• Commander of the fleet!

Save wax-coated milk and cream containers, snip the spout off, close the top with a bit of gaffer tape and paint a fleet for your little seafarer in his or her colour of choice, using water-insoluble paint. Give each boat a name, add numbers to the sides and a lollipop stick mast and you’ll have a no-cost bath-rime armada ready to command.

• Throw in the sponge

Raid kitchen drawers and storage cupboards for plain kitchen and household sponges of all sizes and colours, and cut them into lots of different shapes. Your child will be able to play stacking games with floating circles, triangles, stars, crescent moons, leaves, keyholes, doughnuts and whatever else your (and his) inventive mind can come up with. Caution: before turning the playthings over to your child for the first time, disinfect used sponges by either (a) soaking them in a mild chlorine bleach solution and rinsing well or (b) wetting them and then microwaving on High for 1-2 minutes. After the bath, start a good habit by getting your toddler to help wipe the tub with a designated ‘clean-up’ sponge.

• Produce-bag storage

Turn a large, plastic-mesh produce bag from the supermarket into a storage bag for bath toys. (Avoid string bags made of natural materials such as cotton, which can become mouldy and harbour germs.) If a plastic mesh bag has a paper label, it can be soaked off in warm water. If the bag’s drawstring isn’t strong enough, replace it; a length of strong ribbon or plastic string, knotted tightly, works well. Be sure to remove any metal staples or plastic tags that may come with the bag. After your child’s bath, put the bath toys into the bag and rinse them under running water. Then hang the bag from a tap handle or shower head so that the toys can drip-dry.

• A laundry basket ‘bathtub’

When your baby can sit by herself but is still too wobbly to go in an ordinary bath, a plastic laundry basket — the kind with perforations in the sides — is a great solution. Set the laundry basket in the bath, add a few centimetres of water and put your baby in this ‘bathtub playpen’. Be sure that the holes in the laundry basket are large enough not to catch your baby’s fingers or toes and that all plastic edges are smooth and safe. And follow the number one safety rule: never leave a baby or small child unattended when she is in or near water.

• Infant seat in the bath

If you need an extra pair of hands when bathing a baby, a plastic infant seat will make bath time safer and less stressful for everyone concerned. Remove the seat pad, buckle and straps, and then line the seat with a soft towel folded to fit. To prevent slipping and sliding, lay another towel on the bottom of the bath and set the seat on the towel. Then put your baby in his place and run just enough water into the tub for the bath. The infant seat supports your baby and lets you use both hands to bathe him with ease.

• Petroleum jelly = no tears

Many babies can’t stand getting anything in their eyes at bath time, be it shampoo or water. Whether you have no-tears shampoo on hand or have to make do with a bar of mild soap, dab a tiny drop of petroleum jelly across your child’s eyebrows, gently wiping off any residue with a soft cloth or tissue. The jelly will help to deflect water and shampoo from the eyes and keep your baby happy and comfortable.

• Cotton gloves and slippery babies

A wriggling infant in a soapy bath can feel as slippery as a wet banana skin, but you can get a better grip by wearing a pair of cotton gloves.

• Padded knees

Anyone who has bathed a child knows how tough kneeling on the cold hard floor can be. Athletic knee pads are a great remedy.

• Soap in a sock

This is an excellent use for the many mismatched socks that your washing machine hasn’t swallowed. Fill a sock with soap fragments or a small bar and tightly tie the sock closed. Children like to wash with sock-soap because it doesn’t fly out of their hands.

• Reusing novelty bottles

Tear-free shampoos and liquid bubble bath in Colourful moulded plastic bottles can be expensive everyday products. If your child enjoys shampoo or bubble bath from a bottle shaped like a duck or a frog, save the bottle and refill it with less expensive bath products. Your child will have his bath toy, you’ll save money and you’ll help the environment by reusing plastic.

• Bath-time help from the kitchen

Set a kitchen timer to go off when it’s time for a bath — and also time for a bath to end. For youngsters who are inclined to delay, setting the timer to buzz 5 minutes before bath time is an early-warning system. If your child likes to stay in the bath until he gets wrinkled, the buzzer will remind him to get a move on. Using a timer can help children acquire a better sense of the time required for a specific task. Timers may also be useful when older siblings are competing for time in the bathroom.

• Stop itching with bicarbonate of soda

Adding a cup of bicarbonate of soda to your child’s bath may help to relieve the itching caused by insect bites, heat rashes, sunburn and even chicken pox. Allow the child to have a good soak and then gently pat him or her dry with a clean, soft towel.

Credit: Reader’s Digest

Picture credit: Google