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.
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.
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!
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…
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.
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.
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 🙂
And have you seen the book Not A Box? Love that!
I loved that video with the 2 kids playing with the box… Children can be so creative! 🙂
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/
TheSingleMomClub’s blog is full of fun box ideas because we noticed early on….kids LOVE boxes! Great way for inexpensive indoor fun!