Not a box!

I love the idea of playing with cardboard boxes!! Everyone knows that little monsters usually love playing with the box rather than the gift... and there's a reason for that! The humble ol' cardboard box has even made it to the toy hall of fame... best toy ever! It sparks imagination, resourcefulness and creativity! It can be just a box or way more than a box... the little monsters get to build, explore, transform, invent, reinvent etc. etc... the possibilities are endless. Oh yah did I mention that cardboard boxes are FREE! You don't need to worry about the monsters destroying it and when you're done with it, you don't need to feel guilty about chucking it into the recycle!

A great book to read with the monsters to get their inner box creative juices flowing is this one:

It's super cute and not too long!! Keep in mind that this type of book is for little kids...I would say Kindergarten and younger! And it is not a great read aloud book if you don't do anything afterwards. A discussion about imagination would be great followed by an exploration with a cardboard box! This author also came out with a book called "Not a Stick". I haven't read it, but I'm sure it is equally cute and would be great for exploring sticks!

 

So anyways, my Yules has gone through her fair share of cardboard boxes. She is still a little too young to do anything crazy with them so far but she still enjoys them! Here is her latest "Not a Box!"

 

Step 1: Save the box from Husband and the recycle bin!!

Step 2: Let Yules go to town decorating her box! Remember how I said that large boxes were great for playing with markers... contains the monsters and reduces the potential of getting marker everywhere! She spent a good week coloring inside that box... until there was barely any surface area left!

 

Step 3: Ask Yules what she wanted to do next! She was indifferent and didn't respond haha! So I got to decide this time! I decided that we would turn it into a car... that seemed like the simplest option!

Step 4: I helped her cut out the hole and make it look more car like! (Just for the record... it was not me who drew those special looking wheels... just sayin!) We also added a string so Husband could pull her around or she could pull around her stuffies!

Step 5: Have fun driving around town!!