We have been mainly...........

creating with cardboard this week.  We ordered a number of boxes last week to store some of our kit in the loft which, we have discovered, has mice living there!  We needed some mouse proof storage.  Each box arrived in it's own, larger, cardboard box.  At first I thought what a waste of packaging, but then realised that even though it would have been better to have had less, it provided hours of entertainment for the children.

 I provided the items that were asked for, paints, brushes, scissors and tape.  I gave them the run of the kitchen floor (it has survived!) and an hour later with a small amount of help from me, there was a sizeable ship and a house.  The ship was created by putting two boxes together and was big enough for both children to sail inside.

Over the rest of the afternoon and the following few days the ships and house were played with extensively.  The ship went off on numerous trips to watch whales and sharks, to go fishing, to find an island to live on.  A cardboard tube was found and served as a telescope to look from the rigging.  The house was a home on an island and also served as a lifeboat when the ship started to sink with the cardboard tube as an oar.

The boxes have also been used as percussion instruments, for playing a jack in the box game and hide and seek, to name but a few.  With a little imagination the uses of a cardboard box are endless!