Yes, not knowing a programming language would be a slight problem. If you would like to learn, I would recommend the C language, to begin with.
A cordless doorbell would work, although it might be rather bulky. Here's how it works: Normally, when you press the doorbell switch it rings the chime. However, you could take out the "chime" part of the circuitry and make the output to the speaker simply turn on or off. Next, you would put a flip-flop after that, and then finally it would connect to your toys.