Saturday, April 10, 2010

All Purpose Toy Bar

As Junior has gotten bigger we needed something to get his toys up at eye level for him. A way for his toys to be accessible to him in his wheel chair and other seating/standing devices.
I picked up a bunch of PVC and put a giant toy bar together for him. We made it very large so even his recliner and stander can fit.
This was something I made several years ago so I don't have step by step directions but will share lots of pics as well as the dimensions. The dimensions could easily be adjusted to fit your own child's needs.
The sides are 12 inches wide and the bottom has an extra 5 inch piece of pvc plus a 3 way joint on each side for added stability.
To add to stability as well as give more area for hanging items we added a cross piece approx 2 feet from the ground and then a second one a foot from the first.
The top has a corner joint on each side(the entire toy bar is approx 5 feet tall)
The top of the bar is basically the same as the sides. There is a cross bar one foot from each end. The middle space between the two sides is 3 feet.
We added giant pool noodles to the upper sides on Junior's toy bar. In the past he was having seizures that caused his arms to jerk to the sides or straight up and he could bruise his arms on the pvc. If you want to cover the pvc to make it look nicer you could use colored duct tape or some kind of "safe" paint for plastics. Also it would be best to add pvc cement(needs to be done outside a few days before your child uses it) to the joints so the toy bar doesn't loosen from movement. We did not do this with Junior's and regularly have to be sure the joints are pulled tight.
You could use many different things to hang toys from the bar. For ours I used wide elastic with velcro sewn to either end. I wanted to be able to safely hang his heavier "big kid" toys from the bar.
We use the toy bar to hang all types of toys as well as other things. At Christmas it gets decorated with Christmas ornaments and lights. We sometimes even hang his portable tv on it.
In this picture Junior is in his stander playing with his toy bar.
Here he is in his recliner under the toy bar.
Today Junior's toy bar was turned into his own personal planetarium.

5 comments:

  1. HOLA JUNIORS

    Maravilloso QUE, PARQUE PARECE las Naciones Unidas de Diversiones, ESTA ESPECTACULAR, TE MANDO MUCHOS BESOS Y SIGO TU MAMA QUE Pensando ES UNA GENIA!!

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  2. How fun, Heidi! He sure does seem to enjoy it! I think this is just wonderful...a UNITASKER!

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  3. thank you...loved the idea and will implement at school....

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  4. great idea!

    When are you coming to my house!? You are like the Martha Stewart of adaptive toys!!!

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  5. I know this is an older post, but I love this idea and am going to implement it with my son. Also curious, what is Junior's recliner? Looking for ideas for my son.

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