Kids do not need expensive toys to have creative fun. Many objects found around the house or readily collected can be used for great children’s building projects.
Cardboard boxes
Cardboard boxes come in all shapes and sizes. Nearly anything a child can imagine can be built out of cardboard boxes. Use large appliance boxes to build a playhouse or a fort. Cut windows, doors and skylights into your box. Smaller boxes can be used to craft tunnel entrances, furniture and multi-room structures. Use medium sized boxes to make cages for your own stuffed animal zoo, or link boxes together to create a train.
Use small, evenly sized boxes such as shoe boxes to make stacking bricks. To make the stacking bricks more durable and to make them look more uniform, cover the boxes with self-adhesive contact paper. Shoe boxes also can be used to build a multi-room dollhouse.
Upholstery foam
Thick upholstery foam has an array of uses in the playroom. Once the kids get tired of bouncing on a piece of discarded foam, cut it into evenly shaped bricks. They can be used to stack into fort walls or tall towers. Knocking these buildings over is quiet and painless. Stand several of the foam bricks upright and use a ball to “bowl” into them. For free-form fun, pile them into a big mound and jump into them.
Egg cartons
Whether they are made from cardboard or styrofoam, empty egg cartons are great for building projects and crafts. Use the cartons whole to stack, or cut them apart to reassemble into castles, cities, cars, animals, insects or flowers. Hinge two carton cups together to make a curio box or decorate a whole carton to store trinkets.
Oatmeal canisters
Cardboard food canisters such as oatmeal boxes can be used for a variety of projects. Stretch plastic wrap over the top and secure it with a rubber band to make a drum; decorate the outside with paper cutouts or paint.
Group several canisters to make a beanbag toss game. Decorate each canister and label it with a point value. Toss small foam balls or beanbags toward the canisters, trying to get them inside the ones with the highest point values.
Heavy-duty aluminum foil
Use heavy- duty aluminum foil to transform your cardboard boxes into rocket ships or lunar landers. Need a roof for your playhouse? Unroll wide pieces of aluminum foil and use them to cover your structures.
Cardboard tubes
Cardboard tubes from paper towels, wrapping paper and toilet paper have many creative uses. Attach as many of them as you can find together lengthwise to make a super-long tube. Use it as a telescope, blow through it, or see if you can hear something whispered into one end. Lash several wrapping paper tubes together with tape or string to build a raft. Use the tubes for a modern art project and make sculptures. Fill a tube with rice or small pebbles and seal both ends to make a rain stick.
