Need a toy for your baby? Try a cardboard box!
I love baby play and baby toys, and Anna has many more of them than she needs. I get them as hand-me-downs, find them at yard sales, and occasionally get them as review items (like the cute ALEX Toys Max Round the Farm ball sitting in the box with her). I even splurged and bought Sophie the Giraffe and this Baby Banana Bendable Training Toothbrush. Does a baby toothbrush count as a toy? Anna thinks so!
But the humble cardboard box is one of Anna’s favorite toys! Here you can see her playing with her first-ever cardboard box – a new flat-rate box I had put together to ship this weighted blanket in. Which is why she got away with eating it as much as she did…
As I mentioned in this post, cardboard boxes are also useful for stabilizing a nearly-but-not-quite sitting baby (as Catherine noted in the comments for this post, suitcases work even better for this, since they don’t tip as easily!) Anna sits up really well now, but she is not very mobile, so she appreciates that cardboard boxes keep her toys within reach!
More Cardboard Box Fun for Kids
Do you have an orange box? Turn it into a non-shape sorter! Cutting holes in a regular box works, too!
As Anna gets older, I expect she will use cardboard boxes as push toys as well! Maybe this summer she will be ready to paint her first cardboard canvas! Then this fall I can make her a cardboard washer/dryer, and maybe Johnny can help me make her a cardboard laptop for one of her birthdays. Pretty soon, she will be building her own cardboard houses, and I’m already on the lookout for a box large enough to build a light-up cardboard space shuttle for all four kids!
What is your favorite baby toy? How about your baby’s favorite?
MaryAnne lives in Silicon Valley with her Stanford professor husband Mike and their four children. She writes about parenting through education, creativity, and play. Mama Smiles - Joyful Parenting is a space to share crafts, hands on learning activities, and family outings that enrich lives and bring families together.
