kids and boxes

My older son often used to like the box his toy came out of more than the actual toy. He got in a large empty box and pretended it was a boat. Then he got great with designing stuff and used small box to make things. Playing with boxes helps to develop children's imagination. I am a primary school teacher and I got each child in one of my classes a tiny box for them to decorate. I ended up with many special designs. I had another class make houses from all sorts of boxes. I photographed the results which I was really pleased. Yes next year you could just get a heap of empt boxes, ha ha. Happy New Year.

My daughter did that last year on her first Christmas, but this year she was more into the toys. I am sure by next year she will be over the boxes are the fun part thing, too bad you could save some money for sure.

Boxes appeal to children because they're open ended, or rather they're not meant to be used one way. Sure you put things in them, but if you give a child a box, it can be a playhouse, an air plane, a race car, a cave, etc. However when you give a child a toy, that toy is really meant to bring about one certain type of play from the child. A baby doll is a baby doll and their child, a race car is just a car that they can push around. But a box can be decorated to be made into almost anything. And children crave and need open ended play. Using closed ended toys just means kids aren't using their imagintion and are playing at the lowest level of play.