Making toys
The word "toy" dates to the 16th century, and meant something closer to 'miniature' or 'knicknack' than plaything. But toys as we know them didn't spring from nothing in the 16th century!
No matter the time and place, children have always found things to play with. Chinese children have flown kites for hundreds of years. In Ancient Greece, rich parents bought their children marionettes and gave them toy versions of adult tools. Indigenous children on the plains of North America had toy bows and arrows, and Inuit children in the Arctic played with miniature canoes. Almost everywhere, children have played with dolls.
In Europe and colonial North America, the majority of children's toys were made or found at home until the mid-19th century. Rich parents could buy their children toys -- and their children generally had more time to play with them! -- but most families made their toys at home. Dolls made from corn husks, animals carved from wood or stone, broken tools, scraps of cloth or clay... anything a child could get their hands on could be used as a toy.
