When teaching young children it is necessary to follow a budget. When you don't have very much money, sometimes you have to be creative and work with what you have available. Toilet paper rolls are usually thrown away but they are incredibly useful for a variety of projects. By saving toilet paper rolls, you can recycle them to use as teaching tools for children.

Seed Starters

For those who want to teach children how to grow plants, toilet paper rolls are inexpensive to use as seed starters. Cut a toilet paper roll in half, place each part in a tray, fill each roll with soil, and plant your seeds. The tray catches loose soil and water. Later, when the seedling is big enough, the cardboard tube can be transplanted directly into the garden where it will break down because toilet paper rolls are biodegradable.

Toilet Paper Art

With a little paint, glue, and construction paper, toilet paper rolls can be transformed into animals, buildings, airplanes, cars, and more. Toilet paper rolls provide a basic strong structure for children to build craft projects. Paint a toilet paper roll brown, cut out some fall colored feathers from construction paper, and you can make a turkey as a Thanksgiving craft. There are countless crafts kids could create with a simple toilet paper roll and a few other supplies.

Bird Feeders

Cover a toilet paper roll with peanut butter, roll it in bird seed, and then hang it out in the garden with string. Children can easily make bird feeders and then enjoy watching as different birds enjoy a meal. This could be a great way for kids to learn different types of birds and what types of birdseed they eat.

Recycling

Teaching children the importance of recycling and caring for the Earth is a great lesson for them to learn. Saving toilet paper rolls to send off for recycling is a simple way to include kids in the teaching process. Toilet paper rolls are small so they would be easy for small hands to manage collecting at home. When kids have a bag full of cardboard rolls parents can take their kids to a site where cardboard can be left for recycling. Some cities have special dumpsters set up for cardboard, plastic bottles, and aluminum cans. Check online to find recycling options for cardboard where you live.

Education doesn't have to be expensive. Find ways to reuse objects we throw away everyday to reuse them as tools to teach kids lessons.