Three Toys You Can Make Using PVC Pipes

Do you ever hear the cries of "I'm bored!," coming from your children during a long break from school or a summer vacation? Roto-Rooter recommends working with your kids to makemaking toys out of PVC to help boost creativity, decrease screen time, and—most importantly—put put an end to their cries of boredom. There are many benefits from making toys out of plastic piping, including the following:

• Plastic piping is inexpensive.
• Making the toys stimulates their creativity.
• They can be occupied for hours at a time just making their wonderful creations.
• Once the toy is built, it provides hours of fun.
• The toys are easily taken apart and rebuilt with different features and designs.

Following are three ideas that you can use with PVC piping and connectors.

Marshmallow Shooter

Marshmallow shooters are a lot of fun!. This toy can provide hours of entertainment for both adults and children. All you need are pipes that are cut to different lengths, a few connectors, and mini marshmallows. A simple shooter can be made out of a plain pipe. More elaborate shooters can use connectors to build handles. After the shooters are made, give each of the children colored markers to personalize their own shooters.

Bows and Arrows

A bow and arrow is fun for children. Use a flexible pipe to make a bow. Drill small holes in each end and thread a small cord through each hole. Tie off the cord so the bow string is tight. You can make arrows out of small PVC pipe. Cut the plastic to the desired length for the arrows. If desired, you can cut a small notch in one end of each arrow for a better fit against the string. You can make the arrows safer with a water noodle. Cut the noodle into small sections and push them onto the end of the arrow.

Forts

PVC makes a great fort. It is like building with tinker toys with the added benefit that kids can play in the fort once it's made. Give children pipes of different lengths and various connectors. You can find all these supplies in the plumbing section of a hardware store. They can design the fort on paper first and build from a map, although that isn't necessary. Some children prefer to just take the plastic pieces and start putting them together. If you want a permanent structure you can use pipe glue to connect the pieces. This will make the fort steadier. If you want the kids to be able to re-engineer their design, don't use the pipe glue.