Janna is 13 months old and is such an inquisitive little creature. She is so smart, just like her big brothers and sister. 🙂 Recently, she has been cleaning out the dryer lint trap because she has seen me do it often enough that she knows just what to do.
I try to keep my baby girl entertained the best I can, but sometimes the toys just aren’t interesting enough. This can lead to emptied cabinets or laundry baskets. That’s when non-toy items come into play. For example, Janna was happy for a long time last week with an empty tissue box and some lids.
I gave Janna 4 baby food jar lids which she enjoyed clanking together to make some noise music.
I then showed her how to put the lids into the tissue box and then take them out again.
The plastic on the tissue box made it just challenging enough to keep Janna engaged in the activity. Eventually, she found another box and, on her own, incorporated it into her play.
She made a game of taking the lids out of the tissue box, putting them into the bigger box, and then putting them back into the tissue box. She repeated this process several times.
Obviously, it doesn’t take expensive toys to keep young children entertained. All of my kids have loved playing with cardboard boxes. Right now my 4 year old has turned a small shipping box into a treasure chest by filling it full of all sorts of treasures. Hopefully, there is no food in there. Maybe I better check to make sure what exactly he did put in that box…
Do your kids like playing with boxes?
