Toy and Box

While a student, i liked to use other used-things to make birthday cards, wrap a present, or made some small decoration for my room.
As a mom, now I like to use bottles, medicine boxes, cake boxes, etc. for playing and having fun with my daughters.




Below are short and (I think) useful reading, from the book "Brain Child: how smart parents make a smart kids" written by Tony Buzan (author of "mind maps for kids") .
Expensive Toy and Cardboard Box
Another manifestation of child's limitless creative abilities, and of our adult trained-away-from-the-child-thinking occurs regularly at present-giving times.

Parents / relatives often go to extreme trouble (not to mention expense) to find latest new toy that has bright colors and a number of working parts. What causes adult confusion is the fact that the child will, with all his senses, devour the toy in a few minutes, and then discard it. For the next hour, day and often week, the child will then play with the box.

The beautifully colored toy often has a rigid structure, only a few working parts, and often only one or two functions or uses. It may be battery-operated and just be for looking at.

What about the box?
For a child's creative imagination: it could be a boat, a car, a spaceship, the entrance to a giant cave, a sled, a hideaway, a house, and so on ..
Each one of possibilities opening up the possibilities for infinite adventures of the imagination.

Provide your child with toys that stimulate, expand and encourage the development of his imagination, rather than toys that bore or restrict. Look around your home for playthings – there's no need to spend a lot of money on toys. Used yoghurt pots, egg cartons, washing-up bottles, measuring jugs, and a plethora of other kitchen items can be used in the child imaginative play.

There is no need to provide suggestions, just provide the raw materials and let the child use his imagination. ***


Crystal and Smarty use our television box as their house, they put stools and sit in it. another time, they use the box as their train and go to Beijing, Nanjing, everywhere else. last year, Crystal and Smarty played with birthday cake cardboard. they sat inside the boxes and said they were taking bath in a washing basin. another time, Crystal put the cake box on her shoulder and walked around the house saying that she was delivering goods.

below was a bus i made for Crystal from cough medicine box, which she liked it very much. i made this because she was fighting with Smarty over a bus toy.

i pretty much agree that we dont have to always spend money buying toys. our kids could also be very happy to play with things inside the house, by their imagination, those things become other things.

a door grip becomes water dispenser; a bicycle basket becomes a microwave; a sand digger becomes a giant-spoon for eating; etc.