Entertain the kids with these 8 fun and creative cardboard box ideas

8 Fun and Creative Cardboard Box Ideas to Entertain Kids

Suzy Cato shares innovative ideas to spark your child’s imagination and create lasting memories.

Introduction

If you’ve ever celebrated a two-year-old’s birthday, you know that the wrapping paper and empty cardboard box often bring more delight than the gift itself. There’s something truly special about the simple joys in life. While the contents of your gift will eventually outshine the allure of corrugated cardboard, making the most of that basic box can open up a world of creativity and treasured memories for your children.

Encouraging Creativity

It may require some effort on your part initially, but encouraging your little ones to assist you with scissors and paint, and then quietly supervising as they take over, will soon lead to imaginative play that can consume hours of idle time. Always ensure you have a stockpile of boxes, a roll of tape, a variety of clean, recyclable containers, and small plates. Find a good playlist of clean-up songs to make tidying up just as important and fun as the creating process, even for the youngest family members.

Creative Space

I found that the dining table was a great space for creative sessions, but the dining room floor was even better if craft activities were taking place just before dinner. Set aside time to be creative by yourself as well—release that inner child. It might not be with a cardboard box, but paint, beads, and baubles are for kids of all ages, and creativity does wonders for everyone’s wellbeing.

8 Cardboard Box Ideas

• Start Small and Simple: My first memory of cardboard box play was being zoomed around in an empty box. It’s one of my children’s first memories too.
• Shoebox Bed: A shoebox is the perfect size to make a bed for much-loved soft toys. Old T-shirts or tea towels are good bedding options.
• Box Stove: The trusty box was a common base for my creativity. Pair that with a small cereal box, the bottom of some mini aluminium pie pans, and the lids of old drink bottles, and voila, you have a great free-standing stove. We cut a door in our children’s box stove, and ice cream container ‘cake tins’ worked a treat.
• Vehicles: A box is also perfect for a variety of vehicles—stationary when the kids are small, or with part of the bottom cut out and straps to cross over their shoulders so they can run their cars around the garden.
• Magical Places: Large appliance boxes are amazing and can transform into many magical places, from caves and castles to forts and fairy grottos—and at night, they make wonderful sleeping pods.
• Cardboard Community: How many boxes can you fit into your lounge to make a cardboard community? We’d use a combination of sizes and could manage a decent, if confusing, rabbit warren of passages and rooms.
• Quiet Activities: For quieter activities, provide your children with a selection of smaller food boxes, crafting offcuts and scraps, glue, tape, and let their imaginations loose.
• Dioramas: As your child’s fine motor skills develop, tiny cardboard houses and dioramas take over the dining table and fill the bookshelves.

For more creative ideas, visit Woman Magazine.