Homemade Blocks

[laceylmm]

Had anyone made homemade blocks out of 2x4s or whatever scraps they had instead of paying a crazy amount for premise ones? How did they turn out? Was it worth the time to save the money?

[Blackcat31]

Yep. My DH has made tons of blocks for me over the years.

They are cheaper to make yourself but if you count the amount of time required in cutting, shaping and sanding, you'd be losing money.

Most 2x4's aren't the type of wood you want for block play anyways as blocks are usually maple and if you want to buy enough maple to make a decent amount of blocks, it would be rather spendy.

[Luna]

My own kids are grown but when they were little I made blocks for them. There was a local business that made wooden patterns out of pine and they had tons of scrap. They gave me a huge box of scrap pieces and I didn't have to make one cut. They were cool shapes, curves, triangles, rectangles, you name it. All I did was sand them but I probably should have sealed them too. It was certainly worth the effort of sanding them and it didn't cost me a dime.

[Evansmom]

Yes! And they are also a neat project to do with the kids. After you cut them down you can let the kids color them with water colors and then dry. After they are fully dry you can seal them with beeswax which make them safe to mouth for babies and toddlers

[MissAnn]

Yes! And they are also a neat project to do with the kids. After you cut them down you can let the kids color them with water colors and then dry. After they are fully dry you can seal them with beeswax which make them safe to mouth for babies and toddlers

Do you have to sand them?

[Evansmom]

Do you have to sand them?

Yeah we did and I recommend it. My hubs sanded them the majority of the way with his hand sander then my son and I used fine grit to sand them more just so he could get the feel and experience of sanding.