Our last SUPERbaby post was about all the wonderful play items you can find around the home and use to make a treasure basket for your baby to explore. As you can see from these picture our SUPERbaby poster girl has discovered something else which makes a fabulous, frugal and fun toy for little ones: shoe boxes!
Sturdy enough for some baby-handling, they make great discovery boxes. Take some of your treasures and hide them inside for your baby to find.
Pop the lids on and let your baby begin to understand the concept of object permanence – that even if they can’t see teddy, he is still in the box. Once your baby has played with this idea for a while you could sneak teddy out and watch their surprise when they discover he’s relocated behind your back.
Offer your baby a pile of goodies and let them put things in and take things out to their heart’s content.
How about stacking the boxes to make a tower? As you baby begins to shuffle or crawl you can place the tower a little out of reach to entice them over to know it down.
And as your baby grows, shoes boxes can transform into trains or cots or houses.
More activities for babies and toddlers
Zero to Two: The Book of Play is full of fun activities for babies and toddlers. Download you copy here!
I love shoe boxes! They are great for all ages and the start of much imagination!
Hi Pip. I think you’re right – when you’re using un-toys all ages can join in and play with them in a way that suits them and their age/stage.
Love untoys….and shoe boxes are da bomb.
Hi Kelly B – go shoe boxes!
Aahh. It’s a breath of fresh air when children find toys in the unconventional. It seems like they have more fun with those toys too!
I agree My Oatmeal Kisses, my two certainly seem to prefer ‘un-toys’ to store bought toys.
Thank you for linking up to Ucycled Awesome at http://www.thetshirtdiaries.com.
It’s always fun to join in Robin 🙂
You know I agree with you on this one! Lovely and a great explanation too.
Thanks Anna.
JDaniel always loved the boxes his toys came in.
Hi JDaniel4’s Mom – mine are always pleased when a new box arrives!
Shoe boxes are fun at any age – even I love collecting treasures in them 🙂
That’s true Christie, I have a few myself.
How refreshing! I love to see posts like this. I love when simple is better. Maybe I’m simplistic, or a minimalist, or even an idealist, but I love the idea that you don’t have to buy out the toy store to educate and entertain your child! Thanks for putting that out there to remind us and give us fresh ideas!
Hi Amy – I think we think alike. I sometimes wonder, if I was having my babies over again, whether I would buy them any store bougth toys at all.
Love this – It requires no batteries and uses imagination instead!
Hi ChiMomWriter – a good toy blueprint, I think!
I love your SUPERbaby series! Thanks for linking this up to It’s Playtime last week. I’m featuring a variety of baby/toddler ideas to get the littlest ones involved and included this post.
Jamie @ hands on : as we grow
Thanks for the feature Jamie 😀
Glad I’m not the only one who’s child plays with boxes, lol. My boy isn’t into toys that much but he loves boxes and plastic bottles so I clean them up and give him to play with and he’s happy.
This is great! My baby loves boxes and I have a couple of shoe boxes in my wardrobe which I’m going to dig out now for her to play with!