Possible to make a cheap reflective objective lens with a mirror? Sounds kinda crazy and cheap but has anyone ever tried to take a flexible (plastic) mirror and attach a string to the back side then pull the string so it makes a concave surface? I realize it wouldn't be the most accurate device in the world, but if I wanted to build a telescope with a child I think it would be a cheap and fun way to make it. Thoughts?
That won't work because the shape will be too distorted to be useful. For astronomical purposes, a good quality mirror is needed since the objects you look at are dim and small. If you want a usable astronomical telescope then the optics need to be high quality

If you want to illustrate the properties of telescopes, a simple refracting telescope can be built using the lens from (low power) reading glasses as the objective and a (high power) hand lens as the eyepiece. I've also tried with a shaving mirror, but found the distortion to be too great to form a useful image.