Homemade kid- and enviro-friendly toys

Let’s be real: When it comes to toys, kids just want to have fun. Parents, however, want to make sure that play items are safe. That’s where John and Danita Thomas come in. With four children of their own, the Thomases have made it their mission to address the growning concern regarding the safty of store-bought toys.

The couple discovered ways for parents to make “safe” versions of popular toys using common kitchen ingerdients, and the Thomases share them in their book The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions. (The volume turned into a best-selling series that has won four Parents’ Choice Awards and four Dr. Toy Awards.) They have created more than 1,000 safe, enviromentally friendly recipes for duplicating top-selling toys.

Mostly, the creations are fashioned through recyling and using nothing more than common household ingredients. According to the couple, “almost all of our concoctions cost under $1 to make and many times even exceed the quality of store-bought items costing 20 times as much.”

Meet the Thomases at www.kidconcoctions.com.