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Toddler fun: sitting in boxes

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To accommodate our holiday guests in our tiny dining room with its four-top table, my husband ordered a new camping table from Amazon.com. It arrived in a cardboard box big enough for a 7-year old boy and a 4-year old girl to lie down in. How do I know this? Because my kids got in the box, of course.

In an excellent post about the most basic and universally loved toys on GeekDad, the author says:

Boxes can be turned into furniture or a kitchen playset. You can turn your kids into cardboard robots or create elaborate Star Wars costumes. A large Box can be used as a fort or house and the smaller Box can be used to hide away a special treasure. Got a Stick? Use it as an oar and Box becomes a boat. One particularly famous kid has used the Box as a key component of a time machine, a duplicator and a transmogrifier, among other things.

He notes humorously that this toy can be procured easily from Amazon.

[They] include one with virtually every order I place there.

Here are a few inspirational photos of cardboard boxes, the most versatile toy in your house this week.

from The Imagination Tree


to make while keeping your box-sitting toddler company: cardboard thank you postcards (via designsponge)

homemade marble run – this one is from a cereal box by Made by Joel

Cardboard shape sorter from Parents.com (this article has 11 more box ideas, but is super annoying to navigate due to the ads and one-idea-per-page format.)

I love the Dr. Seuss feel of this silly bedroom set. Make a few “frames” for kids art? via Tip Junkie who has 32 cardboard box ideas posted.

Probably not feasible for most of us, but we do have a handful of small people, furniture and animals who could inhabit a box, via Busy Being Fabulous

Another one from Parents.com. Unless you are a stylist for Parents magazine, your cardboard kitchen won’t look this cute, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

Have you come up with anything cool to do with cardboard?

Update: Two fabulous friends shared their boxes with us over on our Facebook page.

Cori’s kids show us in fast-motion what fun a box can be.

Mike knocks our socks off with this pirate ship he made for Emme to navigate puddles at the park.

Related

December 28, 2011 4:22 pm Whitney 15 Comments Filed Under: Crafty, Flippin' awesome (For Boys), Flippin' Sweet (For Girls), Free/Cheap, Green, Silly, Toddler

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Comments

  1. Wendy Copley says

    December 28, 2011 at 5:02 pm

    Have you watched this movie?

    http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2011/07/13/adventures-of-a-cardboard-box/

    It’s 8 minutes of pure cardboard box wonderfulness. You won’t be sorry you took the time, I promise.

    Reply
  2. LauraC says

    December 29, 2011 at 6:53 am

    I let the boys use cardboard boxes from my desk as little playhouses:

    http://jonandlaura.blogspot.com/2011/09/win-win-situation.html

    Not very cool or creative or different but they played with those things for weeks!

    Reply
  3. Lisa says

    December 29, 2011 at 10:18 am

    My 2 preschoolers are currently turning 3 boxes (plus 2 plastic chairs and a pile of blocks) into an airplane. The nice thing about using a few smaller boxes is that we can nest them and stow them in the closet…

    Reply
  4. Chris says

    December 29, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    My kids made a cardboard box castle and then turned it into a bunny tunnel when we were pet-sitting for a friend’s bunny. He loved it almost as much as kids love cardboard boxes.

    Reply
  5. Emily says

    January 2, 2012 at 12:27 pm

    I turned a cardboard carseat box into a tunnel, then a fort, then a fort with a bigger door, and then an even bigger door.. No dice. Kiddo is not interested. Neighbor kid? Totally interested 🙂 I think I have the weird kid. oh.. and cats? they love the fort.

    Reply
  6. Lori says

    January 9, 2012 at 10:41 am

    between the pop-up tents from an aunt at christmas and boxes, my living room is one big fort! but it all folds and cleans up at the end of the day…just the way i like it 🙂

    Reply
  7. Meredith says

    March 30, 2012 at 8:29 am

    And have you seen the book Not A Box? Love that!

    Reply
  8. Maribel Reyes says

    June 29, 2012 at 10:50 am

    I loved that video with the 2 kids playing with the box… Children can be so creative! 🙂

    Reply
  9. Jennifer Saranow Schultz (aka Hint Mama) says

    December 26, 2013 at 7:20 am

    Love these ideas, especially the shape sorter and play kitchen ones. Just plain old toy and gift boxes work well for playtime too (and for toy storage). My daughter loves to carry ones with handles around like they’re purses and fill and dump others. More on that, and a link to these ideas as well as some others, here: http://hintmama.com/2013/12/26/todays-hint-a-reminder-to-save-your-holiday-gift-boxes-they-make-great-toys/

    Reply
  10. TheSingleMomClub says

    July 30, 2014 at 6:56 pm

    TheSingleMomClub’s blog is full of fun box ideas because we noticed early on….kids LOVE boxes! Great way for inexpensive indoor fun!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 10 things I learned from other parents says:
    May 4, 2012 at 11:27 am

    […] are just as happy with the box as they are with the toy inside (my mom and […]

    Reply
  2. Oh the things you can do with a box! | angathome says:
    September 17, 2013 at 4:02 am

    […] make a cardboard play kitchen, ball or beanbag target practise box or a play city for dinky cars. Pics here.) […]

    Reply
  3. Today’s Hint: A Reminder to Save Your Holiday Gift Boxes – They Make Great Toys – Hint Mama says:
    December 26, 2013 at 6:57 am

    […] (think shape sorter and play kitchen, among others) in a great roundup two years ago entitled “Toddler fun: sitting in boxes.” Finally, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m also a fan of saving food boxes and turning […]

    Reply
  4. Rookie Moms – Things to do with toddlers before they turn two says:
    October 22, 2014 at 3:22 pm

    […] Sitting in a box. Yep. […]

    Reply
  5. Rookie Moms – Toys that get serious play year after year says:
    July 7, 2015 at 6:01 am

    […] Whatever you do, don’t throw out the box, boxes are the best toy! […]

    Reply

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