Fridges, washing machines and other white goods are often delivered packed in large cardboard boxes and rather than throw them away, you can have hours of fun creating toys for your children. This is a great way to recycle your cardboard boxes while saving money on expensive toys. As Christmas approaches, your children will want the latest gadgets which cost hundreds of pounds. If you can reach a compromise, purchase cheaper toys and use materials around the house to build replicas of fun toys from cardboard boxes, it will teach your child the value of money, and that it is not necessary to have the latest gadget to have fun. You may have some cardboard boxes languishing in the loft, or removal boxes you have saved for the next time you move house. Get creative and make them into dragons, castles, puppet theatres and other items for your children. Spend some quality time working with them to design and make the objects for their amusement. Most children have great imaginations and will play with cardboard boxes for hours and if they have help construct the project, they will treasure it for months.
Farmyards are one of the favourite things children like to learn about, and you can construct a barn using a large cardboard box, a sheet of cardboard for the roof, a pencil or marker, scissors and paint. You will need red paint for the walls, grey or green for the roof, white for round the windows and doors, and black for inside the window frames. If the roof is left so that you can remove it, you can later make animals, hay bales and farm implements to put in your barn.
To make the barn, find a large cardboard box or removal box which will accommodate your plastic animals later. Draw a line at the top of the cardboard box so that it has a roof line, then cut along the lines to make a barn shape. Make double doors for the barn in a rectangle with a vertical line in the centre. The vertical lines on the outside will be the hinges, and you can cut along the bottom, top and middle lines, leaving double doors which will fold outwards. If two children are to play with the barn, you can make double doors at each end of the barn so they can put animals and farm machinery in from either end at the same time. To make the roof, cut a large rectangle of another cardboard box or a sheet of cardboard which is slightly longer and wider than the framework of the barn. Mark with a pencil where you are going to fold the roof so that it fits neatly on the structure, making a removable roof. You can paint the roof grey or green and walls of the barn in red. When the paint is dry, you can draw in and paint window frames in white. Leave to dry, then paint the inside of the frames in black.
The barn can be decorated and filled with items from a typical farmyard. If your child is learning about the country at school, it will be a new learning experience to make a barn from cardboard boxes and bring the subject to life.
