With winter settling upon our fair city, the kids and I need more indoor activities to wile away the snowy afternoons. Chicago is due for a decent winter storm on Thursday, so we’ll probably do some fun Christmas themed activities like cookie baking or movie watching with homemade hot chocolate. Sometimes the most fun afternoons evolve from sheer desperation!
When the kids and I visited the Chicago Children’s Museum recently, I found a list of 30 ways to keep kids busy with nothing more than a cardboard box. I thought I would share it here in case other Homemade Mothers need a little inspiration for a cloudy, snowy or chilly afternoon.
1. Junk Science” challenge: Save cardboard boxes and cardboard tubes of all sizes, along with string, rubber bands, lids, paper clips, yogurt cups, and so on. Then challenge children to collaborate on a project.
2. Made up games: Make a list of all the games you can make with the box. Card games? Board games? Yes, please! Cut-out and decorate unique playing cards. Draw the spaces on your board and create original game pieces. Invite some friends over and let the games begin!
3. Makeshift canvas: Let your children channel their inner artist with cardboard as their canvas. Frame accordingly.
4. Maze: You will need lots of boxes, imagination and time to create a masterpiece to crawl-through!
5. Pinhole camera: Create that vintage photo look by capturing your digital images through a small pinhole punctured in a cardboard box. Hold the pin-hole up to the camera lens and viola—unusual, unforgettable photographs.
6. Memory-keeper: An old shoebox is perfect for letters or small treasures that are dear to your heart. (this makes for a great wedding shower gift!)
7. Play structures: An unaltered box is sufficient to keep children busy for hours. Sheets of flat cardboard can be used as “building sheets” and cardboard tubes can be used for supports. A spaceship? A submarine? An airplane? Endless possibilities!
8. Sled: A flattened box makes a great on-the-spot sled!
9. Pizza making: A fun activity using cardboard, colored paper and other supplies around your home. The cardboard serves as the “crust” while you pile it high with eye-catching “toppings”.
10. Makeshift car: Despite having no batteries, no steering and no wheels, you will be absolutely delighted pretending in your cardboard car!
11. Box City or village: Create the city or little village of your dreams made from cardboard boxes! Use paint, sharpies, clear vinyl, ribbon, scraps of paper and packaging to make windows, doors, chimneys and much more on your block houses.
12. Oversized blocks: Small boxes are great as disposable toy blocks.
13. “Bring your Own Box” party: Host a party in which guests are invited to show up with cardboard boxes of all sizes. Supply masking tape, duct tape, markers, paint and plenty of room for creations!
14. Hideout: Draw on the outside of a large box (stove and refrigerator boxes work perfectly) and decorate the inside any way you like. A great spot to take a nap or read a book!
15. Fort building: Stack boxes of various sizes and shapes to make a fort. Knock it down, and repeat!
16. Toy box: Tape over any sharp edges, paint with fun colors and personalize liberally.
17. Diorama projects: Use cardboard to create small worlds, school projects, and science fair displays. Perhaps recreate a miniature scene from a favorite childhood story or use the box to illustrate the investigation you child explored.
18. Pet bed: Whether it is for a real pet or the stuffed animal kind, a low-sided/ shallow box makes a perfect pet bed. With an old pillow and soft blanket, Spot won’t complain.
19. Puppet stage: Create a puppet stage from a repurposed box. Decorate the backdrop with paper scraps, gift-wrap, or paint.
20. Eclipse sun viewer: Use a cardboard box to make a safe solar eclipse viewer.
21. Furniture making: Craft big or small, easy, cheap and light furniture from cardboard! Cardboard furniture is becoming high art and eco-chic.
22. Signs: Selling lemonade this weekend? Cardboard boxes can become signage with just a few easy snips.
23. Ball or marble run: Use several pieces of cardboard taped together to create a fun path for your speeding marbles or balls.
24. Cardboard canoe: Find a box, large enough for your child to sit in it. Bring the ends of the cardboard box together, to create the pointy shape of a canoe, and use hot glue or duct tape to secure them in place.
25. Halloween costume: Become a robot, knight, or anything you like by using cardboard boxes as the foundation of this year’s Halloween costume. (My Mack was a robot this year thanks to a cardboard box and some aluminum foil!)
26. Puzzles: Cut-out various shapes that fit together to make flat or 3-D puzzles from cardboard boxes.
27. Compost bin: Wriggly red worms turn food scraps and organic wastes into nature’s best soil to grow more food – and the worms love eating cardboard!
28. Seedling starter pots: Home-growing is a favorite activity everywhere. Get small boxes, place into rows in a large foam container, fill with soil and plant seedlings. Watch your garden grow!
29. Pretend “ice” skating: Tape sheets of cardboard onto the floor and pretend to “ice” skate in your socks!
30. Picture frame: Cut out different shapes and sizes of cardboard to use as frames to hang your works of art.
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