It also happened that we replaced our front storm door. When Grandpa Jack came home with the door and slid it out the box...well, as everyone knows, there is no better toy than a cardboard box!
I heard the giggling and squeals of joy and upon investigation, this is what I found. Couldn't resist sharing these fun photos.
How many times over the years do you supposed children have chosen a cardboard box as a favorite toy? What lesson would we take from this? Keep it simple, maybe?
"The more things change, the more they stay the same." I find a certain measure of comfort in that.
My grandson is notorious for playing longer with the boxes the toys came in then the toys themselves!
ReplyDeleteJust the other day my friend and I talked about children's playing in the past. We actually did not need any fine toys. A ball for several various plays - like up on a wall with 10 variations; or playing "clay balls"; playing with the finely coloured marking rings; or we had all those singing games:"Sleeping Beauty", "The shoemaker and his wife and their children and their shoes and a flea on the last child's shoe"... and "Three pretty girls in a ring" (Who's got the ring?) And there was the swinging game where you were pushed around and then had to stand in the same position.....and so on. The "Paradise" (hopping in Paradise with a fine little flat round stone we could buy in the toy store). We used chalk to draw the paradise and if we did not have chalk we used a potato - but then we had to re-draw the paradise several times. No matter. Keep it simple.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you know these games or some similar?
cheers
Grethe
I know, Pam...I think it's great, actually! Kids will use their imaginations is we let them. A box can be a million different things but the toy is only the toy!
ReplyDeleteThyra, thanks for the visit! I remember playing ball up on a wall when I was a child visiting my grandparent in Ireland. But I'm not familiar with those singing games or the Paradise game. They sound like a lot of fun. We played skipping rope, though, and hopscotch.
Hopscotch was a game where you draw a pattern of squares in chalk on the sidewalk and then skip in the squares from one end to the other.
Hopscotch is Paradise!
ReplyDeleteGrethe
Nice post and I too like that kids enjoy the simple things especially when they can use their imaginations.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to see children still enjoy such simple pleasures!
ReplyDeleteHow fun. That cardboard allows them to express their creativity. I love it. I used to make tv sets and puppets with cardboard when I was very young. Now, it goes directly in the recycle bin :D
ReplyDeleteAwesome photo of the twins just being kids, having fun and simple fun at that. It's so wonderful to actually see children outdoors, there's way to many hooked on technology and those seem to me to be the ones who are overweight and not at all healthy.
ReplyDeleteYes, unfortunately summer is winding down, I could feel the chill in the air today and had to come home to change out of my khakis... noooo, not yet.
Have a fantastic Sunday Cheryl!
Oh, yes, cardboard boxes made the best toys! I remember playing house in a big box - we cut out windows and a door - had a blast!
ReplyDeleteImagination is the best toy.
Oh yes! How fun is a giant box!!! So glad you could have a fun time this weekend with some special people!
ReplyDeleteAw, that is so adorable and the photos are totally heart-warming... Makes me yearn for those "simpler" times! I remember getting a big fancy toy for Hannukah one year when I was very little, and I played more with the giant box than the actual toy. ;)
ReplyDeleteRight on Cheryl ! Great photos that kindle some great memories ! I recall playing cops and robbers with a pretend gun which was nothing more than a stick or piece of wood you'd find that best resembled a gun - but it was innocent fun. and cardboard boxes - the BEST ! We played with them as kids, our kids played with them, and our grandchildren now play with them.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think we try and structure their play a little too much with all the organized activities we drag them off to.
Enjoy your week!
Wow, Thyra...isn't it fun to learn that children all over the world play the same games even though they're called by different names? Love it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, TechnoBabe! I wonder if we don't innocently squelch the imaginations of children by presenting them with too many lifelike toys.
Thank you, Teresa. I was just so pleased to see them having fun with that box.
Wow, Joanne, you really did use your imagination well...puppets and tv sets from cardboard would be awesome toys.
Darlin, I agree. And when any of the kids come to the lake, they're outside waaaay more than they're inside. I love that.
Baggie, we did that,too! Making a house from a big cardboard box was the best fun.
Thanks, Betty. I learn a lot from the grandkids on so many different levels.
Thanks, Hannah. I think that's what got to me, too...yearning for those simpler times. Just goes to show you that we're all pretty much the same when we're children...we should try to hang on to some of that when we grow up.
You are SO right. A cardboard box is the best toy in the world!
ReplyDeleteLove this!
ReplyDeleteMy kids always did like playing in my tupperware cupboard more than their toybox!
Happy week to you, and enjoy the last day of "summer":))....Iffy weather will be upon us too soon!!
dawn:)
Thanks, Rick...Yes, sticks, cardboard, just about anything could tweak our imaginations when we were kids. Pots and pans were drums...stuff like that. Good times.
ReplyDeleteHi, blueviolet! Cardboard boxes as a universal toy...isn't that just rich?
Thank you, Dawn. Tupperware is a great toy...especially in the bathtub. Kids can cook up a storm with tupperware, some measuring cups and wooden spoons. Bathtime at it's best.
Our parents could have saved hundreds and just given us big boxes to play in at XMAS....
ReplyDeleteLove those photos of the kids playing on the cardboard. I remember as a young girl playing inside of boxes that refrigerators and ovens came in. We'd make forts and spend days in those "forts."
ReplyDeleteGorgeous grandchildren too! Lucky ducks.
I had several convertible cardboard boxes when I was a little 'un. They could be a spaceship, a car, a fort, a pirate galleon, a tank. Who needed an xbox when you had a box?
ReplyDeleteRamona, you are correct! Maybe we could invent a toy that's just a hunk of cardboard that can be configured into whatever - ha!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Janell...you know, I had forgotten about that but forts were a BIG way to use cardboard boxes. How fun was that?
Hi Michael...boy, you really put your imagination to work when you were a child! Good memories. Isn't it great to remember all the fun that was had with such a simple thing as a cardboard box?
What a delight, seeing the twins having such fun. Brought back warm memories of us doing the same...and like Janell above we'd also make forts...to keep the bears out. In our minds thousands of bears roamed the open pasture, lol. What fun we had!! Thanks for a great post~
ReplyDeleteSo classic.. boxes were made for kidlets and cats. Great photos.
ReplyDeleteOh, so cute. My kids always loved a nice big box, too.
ReplyDelete