If you give a babe a box...

"The toy in the child's hand is alive." 
Magda Gerber

If you have a preschool aged child you have certainly read the book series by Laura Numeroff, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie."  This is our take on it.  This is one of my personal favorite activities for a child. 

A box...

A box is a world of imagination to a young child.  If you give a child a gift, and it comes in a box large enough for them to crawl into, they will likely ditch the gift and go for the box.  The box is a boat, a ship, a cave, a car, a rocket, a house, a bed, a safe place.  It is always, in my observations, a place of safety for a child, a refuse and a help for whatever scenario they have conjured. 

Feeding and caring for ten children requires purchases to be made in bulk, so thankfully, usually by months end, we have an ample supply of boxes.  I do try to make certain I have enough boxes for each child to have their own.  Sharing at this age is very difficult.  At times, we can utilize them as objects of sharing, but along comes one of our little 1's and share time is over... :)

---

Here, he used the boxes one in front of the next, lining them up perfectly. He then climbed into one of them and sang our song, "Little Red Caboose."

Small spaces have a calming effect for young children and they spent hours creating, reading, and relaxing there... I would seriously spend MONEY buying boxes (if they weren't so expensive!! HA!!)

The picture is a blur...but you get the idea. The box basketball goal was a huge hit. On cold/wet days it kept the kids moving and helped work out the wiggles...

We lovingly and jokingly referred to this as Toddler Town while the boxes were still standing. We cut in doors and windows. We gave the children their crayons and markers and told them to do ANYTHING they wanted to do. They spent LOTS of time decorating their boats, trains, apartments, houses, caves, baby beds, bedrooms...etc...

At one point we put them together with blankets and tape to make a maze. This was taken just before adding the blankets.

We made homemade indoor basketball goals by cutting out the bottom and the top and taping it to a door.

Why is playing with boxes is an important part of the learning process?

We know it's fun.  We know it's the nature of young children to toss the toy and play with the box.  We have all felt that little sting as well meaning parents, grandparents, and yes preschool teachers when we have spent quite a lot of money on a new toy and the box is what they have a BLAST with until it's unrecognizable and tossed into pieces into the recycle bin.  Why, though?  What is the draw that young children have to the box?

They desire to create the world around them...just like we do.  Think about it, we decorate our homes (big boxes), our cars (sometimes big boxes), even our coffee mugs (little boxes) at a pottery class with our own style, with the things that touch our hearts and speak to us emotionally.  Creative, imaginative play is practice for later adult world events like homemaking.  We each desire to have our own "box" or space that is uniquely ours; something that speaks to us and others and says, "This is me, what I like, and what's important to me." 

This type of imaginative play is vital to the self-confidence.  It is an essential building block in the foundation of thinking.  This "thinking" teaches children to problem solve emotionally/socially with other children; to think about spatial relations in reference to ALL the stacks of toys or friends they attempt to put into their box space; to redesign and redirect their materials for to meet their goals for a variety of play that will ensue individually or as a group. 

So...the next time you are trying to decide how to spend $20 on a fun new toy that will keep your child busy for hours, go to your local moving store and pick up a big box, step back, and watch the fun confident that your decision is appropriate, imaginative, and GREAT for their development!

As always...we wish you well - L