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.
Erica @What Do We Do All Day? says
Know, what else is magical? Anna!
Have you ever read the book, Chloe, about the rabbit family which turns off the TV for cardboard box play?
MaryAnne says
Anna is incredible – we adore her!
We haven’t read the book – adding it to my library list now!
Ann says
“I like to see what it tastes like” says Anna!
So cute! Great video! Boxes are great fun!!!
I remember I had a bin of random things (not toys) for my babies to dig through.
MaryAnne says
Thanks! Aren’t cardboard boxes great?
Jessica says
No wonder the cardboard box was inducted in the toy hall of fame! It’s so useful!
MaryAnne says
Cardboard boxes make awesome toys!
Christy says
So cute! Why haven’t I thought of this? I have to look for that book Erica mentioned, sounds interesting.
Jen says
She’s so cute! I remember Joshua always loved plastic water bottles. I have no idea why but he always wanted those over his Little People toys.
MaryAnne says
My Emma LOVED water bottles – and shampoo bottles (the clear kind, so you could see the shampoo inside) were even better!
Elisa | blissfulE says
Terrific!! Definitely eases the frustration of that time when babies push their toys out of reach and can’t retrieve them.
And a toothbrush is DEFINITELY a baby toy! I let whoever my youngest is chew on a toothbrush held in one hand while I trim fingernails on the other hand. :)
MaryAnne says
I love your fingernail trimming trick!
PragmaticMom says
You are so right that cardboard boxes are highly underestimated as the best toy in the world!
MaryAnne says
I think they have to be the most versatile toy!
Ticia says
Cardboard boxes were always my kids favorite as babies.
MaryAnne says
You can’t go wrong with a cardboard box!
Mud Hut Mama says
You are so good at getting great shots of your children – the top one of Anna is just beautiful. My kids are also big cardboard box fans but both of their favorite things were their blankies – they loved running them through their fingers and they still do.
MaryAnne says
Thank you! I love taking pictures of my kids!
Anna really likes blankets – she is the first of any of my kids to show any interest there!
andiejaye says
how sweet is she?!?! i sooooooo love those lil cheekers and her little laugh. such a cutie pie!
Alicia McCandlish says
As a person who has worked at UPS for 15 yrs I would never let my baby play with a cardboard box that has been shipped. These boxes are exposed to so much filth from people’s boots, sweat, snot rockets, spit, spills from other packages inside the trucks ( some of which could be hazardous material). To stabilize my daughter I use a square laundry basket, the same one I keep her toys in and that she uses to practice walking and that we sit her in to push her around for a ride.