Homemade Baby Gym Toys

A simple wooden baby gym is one of the best toys for babies, and you can easily make one yourself, and make your homemade baby gym toys to hang from it to entertain your baby and encourage development.

With just a few simple household items and a bit of crafting you make lots of DIY baby gym toys that your baby will love.

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All our babies have loved lying under this simple, homemade, wooden baby gym that their grandfather made for us. And we loved how easy it is to change out the toys hanging from the baby gym to keep our babies happily playing and developing.

Before you start making your own baby gym, or baby gym toys, be sure to make sure to keep your baby safe.

Babies should be supervised at all times while playing with a baby gym, and all toys and baby gyms (homemade or store bought) should be tested for safety before use.

The Benefits of Baby Gyms

Baby gyms are one of the few toys that babies can enjoy as a newborn, right up to the stage of crawling.

Popping your newborn baby on the floor under a baby gym can help develop their visual tracking and depth perception as the toys are placed at he perfect distance for babies to see clearly. Babies are born near sighted so they need items to be close, such as hanging over their faces, to see them clearly.

As your baby gets older they will begin reaching out to swat, bat, and grasp objects on the baby gym, this is perfect for developing eye hand co-ordination. The baby gym will also help with gross motor development, encouraging your baby to use and develop muscles in their neck, tummy, back arms and legs.

Baby gyms can help with the development of the cognitive skill of cause and effect (what happens when I swat this toy?) which is an important building blocks for lots of other skills. They are also great for sensory play – allowing your baby to experience lot of different sensory input and begin to explore the world through their sense.

A Simple Baby Gym that is Easy to Use

Our handmade baby gym is incredibly simple by design.

It is made from pair of a-frames made with large dowels that attach to a triangular piece of wood with holes drilled in it. There is a hole drilled into the triangle to fit the dowel across the top, and the supporting side bars made of smaller dowels that slot into holes drilled into the large dowels. All pieces are glued into place.

It’s sturdy enough for the big kids to hang off and it’s perfect for hanging a variety of fun objects for baby to watch or bat at.

If you don’t have a grandfather who is good at woodworking, here’s a wooden baby gym on Amazon that is similar. And here are some instructions for making a similar wooden baby gym.

We use plastic linky rings to attach various toys, hanging from the top, and along the side supports. The linky rings hold the toys securely but easily come off if pulled hard so we know no one is going to get tangled up and hurt.

You can hang all kinds of store bought toys such as these hanging soft toys, or a grabby ball, or just a simple rattle.

But there are lots of simple homemade items that are perfect for adding to your baby gym.

DIY Baby Gym Toys

There are lots of simple things you can make and household items you can add to your baby gym to change up the visual, tactile and auditory stimulation.

Here are some simple idea for household items you can use for DIY baby gym toys:

Mesh Bath/Shower Sponges

These fluffy mesh exfoliating sponges for the bath or shower are also perfect to hang from your baby gym. They are light, washable, have an interesting texture, they come in lots of colours and you can usually buy one for a couple of dollars.

Printable High Contrast Images

High contrast images like these printables from The Artisan Life are perfect for developing visual perception and they are super quick and easy to make, just download print, add some ribbon and they are ready to go. You could also cut out some faces from magazines, or use recycled greeting cards to make similar hanging images.

Ribbons, Fabric or Wool Tassels

You can use any fabric, wool, or ribbon scraps you have on hand to make tassels to hang from your baby gym. Either tie a bunch to a wooden or plastic ring. Or make tassels by looping a bunch of strips and tying a string around the bunch just below the loop. You could even use old t-shirts to make tassels like these from My Poppet Makes.

Bottle Cap Rattle

Collect lots of brightly coloured plastic bottle caps, melt a hole in the middle of each one with a hot skewer and thread them onto a piece or ribbon or strong sting. Older siblings will love helping to make this simple, brightly coloured baby toy.

Scarves
If you have some old scarves lying around, or you have some small play silks, you could simply tie them around the baby gym and leave some short pieces to hang down.

Gift Bows
Gift bows are another fun item to hang from your baby gym. They are light and fluffy and have a fun scrunchy texture. Or collect the curling ribbon from your gifts and curl up some bunches of ribbon to hang from the baby gym.

Small Stuffed Animals

Any small stuffed animal that can fit through one of the linky rings is perfect to add to your baby gym. My kids loved adding the little dog you can see in the photos, and a stuffed bunny similar to this one.

More Baby Play Ideas

If you have a baby who is beginning to want to explore the world and play more, you might like some of these simple baby play ideas: