We’ve hit the stage with B where collection every penny around the house is his. I’ve partnered with Playing Forward to share a fun DIY taxi cab piggy bank inspired by their fun new AR app, Maxi the Taxi Dog! Your kids will look forward to saving their pennies in this easy to make DIY piggy bank in no time.

DIY Taxi Cab Piggy Bank

My son is obsessed with any and all cars on the road and recently we were out of town and funny enough it was his first time seeing a real-life taxi cab. The bright black and yellow car perked him right up and immediately he asked if Maxi was in the cab too. Who’s Maxi? I can’t wait to tell you more about him and my son’s newest favorite app, Maxi the Taxi Dog, below before showing you our DIY piggy bank!

MAXI THE TAXI DOG APP

We were so excited to hear about Playing it Forward‘s newest augmented reality app, Maxi the Taxi Dog. Based on the Penguin Publishing’s children’s classic “MAXI THE TAXI DOG” published 25 years old, we follow Maxi, Jim, and their new friend Tupa going to the Cooper Hewitt Museum in order to help Tupa overcome his fear of the dark, with Maxi also learning a few new tricks along the way. Your kids will have a blast with the 3D storybook even if they aren’t pro readers.

I especially love having my son “play” his game while I’m making dinner. If you can’t sit down to read to your child (or they can’t read themselves), you can choose either a woman or a man to read aloud to your child while they move around and experience the story from multiple perspectives in the augmented reality world! This is honestly one of my favorite aspects of the app. At bedtime, I read to B but during the day he can still enjoy the app on his own.

Maxi the Taxi Dog is such a great app that can help the reader to explore while also learning critical social-emotional skills like recognizing and managing one’s emotions. My son is only four but he really gets into it and asks a lot of questions like why certain characters act the way they do (no spoilers.)

DIY Taxi Cab Piggy Bank

B loves taxi cabs so much that I thought it would be fun to give him a piggy bank inspired by Maxi the Taxi Dog. This fun DIY craft only takes about 30 minutes from start to finish and if you’re anything like us you already have the supplies lying around the garage.

Supplies:

• An old cardboard box
• X-Acto knife/scissors
• Pencil
• Sharpie marker
• Packing tape
• Masking tape
• acrylic paint

From a cardboard box, sketch with a pencil the general car shape you want. This can be any size you want but we made ours pretty large so B could save a lot of money. After you have a pencil outline, you can go over it a sharpie. We did this so we could follow our line easier but it’s not necessary. Once you have the shape of your car, use an X-Acto knife to carefully cut it out. With one car cut out, use it as a template to cut an additional cardboard car.

For the top and bottom of your car, you need two long strips of cardboard. The width is your choice (we did 4″) so figure out how many inches apart you want the two cars to be.

For the bottom strip: measure bumper to bumper plus 4 inches. Our original measurement was 12″ so we cut out a strip that was 4″ wide and 16″ long.
For the top strip: measure bumper to bumper plus 8 inches. Our original measurement was 12″ so we cut a strip that was 4″ wide and 20″ long. Also on this long strip, cut out a rectangle in the middle. This will be the money slot so make it a good size.

Let’s put this car together! First place your shorter strip evenly along the bottom of the car, bend and manipulate the ends so they go halfway up the trunk and hood (as shown). Use packing tape to secure the strip from the inside. Follow the same steps for the long strip across the top of the car.

To secure the other half of the car, use masking tape along the edges. I used masking tape because I wasn’t sure if paint would adhere to the packing tape.

It’s time for paint!

Paint the entire car white first. This gives your yellow and black paints a solid base. Allow to fully dry before moving onto the other colors.

Next, have fun and give your car all the details a taxi has. I used painter’s tape to get shape edges but you could totally freehand it or let your kiddos personalize their own taxi. We love this DIY piggy bank craft and think it’s a great project your kiddos can have fun with, learn about saving money, and play along with their new pal, Maxi!

The giveaway!

To celebrate the launch of these apps, Playing Forward is running a contest with the Grand Prize
being a whirlwind STEAM-powered weekend of play and exploration in Manhattan!

• The Grand Prize includes air transportation, a two-night hotel stay, a Visa gift card to
  cover meals, various museum tickets for a family of four
• It will also include personalized experiences at two of Manhattan’s most unique
  museums – the Natural History Museum & the Children’s Museum of the Arts

The runner-up will receive a 9.7-inch, 32GB Apple iPad with WiFi Connectivity. All you have to do is head here to enter!

Disclosure: This post is part of a sponsored campaign for Playing Forward. I received compensation for my participation, but as always my review and opinions are my own.