We had some friends–the parents of two young boys–over last night for dinner, and the conversation eventually turned to toys and what our kids play with. They have just moved, and though the toys are finally unpacked again, they found that their children’s attentions were held for hours by the moving boxes. We agreed that there are few things that offer such unlimited possibilities as a large cardboard box, an empty canvas for the fertile young mind.

Lo and behold, this morning’s paper notes that among the 2005 inductees to the National Toy Hall of Fame at Rochester’s Strong Museum is the cardboard box:

The strength, light weight, and easy availability that make cardboard boxes successful with industry have made them endlessly adaptable by children for creative play. Shoe boxes serve as ideal settings for scenes and dioramas. Small boxes take on alternate roles as dollhouse furniture. Wheels drawn on the side turn a box into a car. Really large boxes—from washers, stoves, big-screen TVs, or refrigerators—can offer children even greater opportunity for creativity. With nothing more than a little imagination, those boxes can be transformed into forts or houses, spaceships or submarines, castles or caves. Inside a big cardboard box, a child is transported to a world of his or her own, one where anything is possible.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 13th, 2005 at 9:38 am and is filed under Toys, Parenting/Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.