M.J.
There aren't legitimate at-home assembly jobs. Those are prime scams. Be very, very careful. The work you described, though, could be done as a business, like through Etsy.com, but you'll need to have professional drive, business sense and creativity.
To make $1,000 a month, you'll most likely need a professional job from home and those tend to be either consulting work or working from home after you've proven yourself at a company for a while. Most likely, you'd need childcare, too.
I've worked from home for nine years now as a freelance writer and love it, but it's not the "dream" everyone makes it out to be. It's still hard work and requires a lot of initiative and commitment. Check out the site www.wahm.com for more realities about working from home.