Cardboard box play - Day 2 Day Parenting

Cardboard Box Play Ideas

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When little ones have a birthday or the holidays roll around, many parents are surprised to see that their young child sometimes has more fun playing with the gift wrap and the box than the toy itself. If this sounds like your child, here are ten fun cardboard box play ideas that also help your child work on important skills.

  1. Young babies can actually sit inside a corner of a sturdy box in order to work on sitting balance.
  2. Place your baby or toddler inside the box and let them hold onto the sides as you gently pull the box side to side or take them for a ride around the house.
  3. Older babies and toddlers can learn to “bench sit” with their knees bent and feet flat on the floor by sitting on an upside down box to play.
  4. An overturned box can be used as a table for children to kneel at or to pull to stand on.
  5. If you cut out the end of an overturned box, it becomes a tunnel to crawl through or play peek-a-boo.
  6. Large boxes from appliances make great play houses for toddlers.  You can cut windows and doors into them and let your kids decorate the outside with crayons, markers and stickers.
  7. Kids can use a box as a wagon and place other toys or baby dolls inside and then push and pull the box around the floor.
  8. Kids can work on balance skills by climbing into and out of a box.
  9. Sturdy overturned boxes can be used to step off of or jump off of.
  10. You can cut holes of various shapes into the box and work on fitting toys into them or color your boxes each a different color and work on color sorting and matching by throwing balls into a box of the same color (i.e. red balls into the red box, blue balls into the blue box).

All these are very simple ideas that will work on your child’s balance, coordination, weight bearing skills, trunk and core strength, play, creativity and explorations skills!