FREE: put them in the garden or arts and crafts

i love having the kids make their own toys. :D that way if it breaks then they know how to do it again or it was really cheap to make. I know what you mean a bit about having to be inventive. I may not be of your experience but we had to make do with what we had and usually it was sticks rocks and whatever we found around the yard lol

LOL! I'm just a 65yr old gr'ma with too much time on her hands & gr'kids with a lot of scratched dvds! :D
Being raised on the tail end of the World War 2 depression, getting 1 or 2 store bought toys only happened on my Bday or Christmas so using my imagination to make something out of nothing over the yrs has been entertainment & mentally simulating! And I think my kids, gr'kids & I had more fun with home made toys than kids do with manufactured toys that leave little to the imagination! ;-)

.....My husband is a musician & has lots of posters & charts on his music room walls, all pinned up with bulletin board pins on each corner + a CD, DVD or Video game disk hanging on each pin, lable side to the wall. Very decorative & reflect the various colored lights on all his equipment!
I made collage's of disks in large frames, lable sides to the wall, creating large framed mirrors for my hallway. Also made a framed collage using disks & grandkids school pictures :D

I made a photo mobile...My hubby drilled tiny holes in one disc. I hung short and long and longer string/fish line with dics at the end of each line. One the disc I put one grandchild per disc and decorated the disc with glitter, fabric paint etc...It is hanging in my craft room and as the ceiling fan goes around the mobile moves...You can also take a large marble and glue it in the hole of a CD disc...spin it like a top....

Kids could glue a couple, lable sides, together then glue milk carton caps or soda bottle caps rim side down over holes & there ya have a flying saucer! Has to be good glue tho if kids are going to fling their saucers across the yard! :D
Or they can use a paper grocery bag or large gift bag, cut holes where eyes go when ya put the bag on their head, glue disks shiny side facing out over eye holes & there ya have a robot or monster head!
A simple fun game is to balance the disk with the hole over a marble (or over the pointed cap of an elmers glue bottle) then try to balance small objects, like soda bottle caps, erasers, cubes of candy like starburst etc all around the balanced disk without it tipping. Really hard to do but kills a lot of time for patient kids! :]

Watching. I'd fan but the stupid ratio thing on this site won't let me do so.

I have a box full of old CDs, I never throw em out lol they are great for crafts... we've made earrings n necklaces (CDs cut up of course), ornaments, mobiles, mosaic picture frames, decorated em an added suction cups to hang them, possibilities are endless... have even seen someone alternate CDs to cover the underside of a glass table (showing lable side then beside it showing shinny side until whole thing was covered) then put glass top over it all, it was cool looking... Fanned ya n watching some of your other auctions :)