Save Those Boxes!

If the supply of boxes is generous and constant, most children will be delighted to show parents how inventive they can be. For example, babies crawl into boxes, sit and grin. Sometimes they get stuck and cry. Then they learn how to back out.

Big brothers and sisters occasionally think of putting a string through a hole punched in a box. Then babies pull the boxes.

Toddlers think boxes are cars, boats, trains or space ships. They think very big boxes are houses.
Ask at your appliance store for a big box that used to contain and refrigerator. This big box will make a dandy puppet theater where the main character is a fierce shoebox crocodile (the box top is the lower jaw).
Some little boxes fit over hands for hand puppets. Some tiny boxes fit over fingers for finger puppets (remember the boxes lipsticks come in).

Middle-sized boxes fit over heads, with holes for eyes. Other boxes can make a whole suit of armor where the body pieces are attached by string at the joints. There’s also a visor hinged with string to go up and down.

Of course, there’s a whole world that can be made of miniature boxes—houses, farms for small animals, outer space cities that on closer inspection bulge with exotic cosmetic boxes, cheese boxes and toilet paper tubes. Elmer’s Glue™ holds it all together.

Oatmeal boxes make rockets. A paper plate with a wedge-shaped section cut out can be bent into a nose cone (plus some tape to hold it).

Eggs come in boxes (get the molded kind instead of the folded kind). And egg box caterpillars are easy—kids can tear one strip of bumps from the molded box, draw eyes, and there it is.

But why not start a really fun project everybody can work on: a dollhouse. First, pile up boxes, one for each room. Glue them together, cut doors and windows, fold a piece of corrugated cardboard into a V for the roof. Bend another piece of cardboard into a zigzag for the stairs, wallpaper the wall...the rest of the fun is up to you!

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