10 Cool Things You Can Do
with a Really Big Box

Need some help surviving a summer with your energetic kids? Want to get involved in the fun? Here are some hints from A Mother's Manual for Summer Survival, by Kathy Peel and Joy Mahaffey.

  1. Create a rocket from a refrigerator carton. Make a cardboard cone for the nose, and use red and orange streamers for the "ignition".
  2. Make a reading hideout. Add lots of books, magazines, pillows, and a "Do Not Disturb" sign.
  3. Make a doll house from a medium-size box. Create furniture by covering smaller boxes with scrap fabric or contact paper.
  4. Design a robot using different sized boxes and cardboard tubes for legs and arms. Use buttons, felt, ribbon and rickrack for features.
  5. Tape large boxes together to make a tunnel. Connect a few together.
  6. Create a submarine. Paint it yellow, cut portholes, and make a periscope from a cardboard tube.
  7. Build a box zoo for your stuffed animals in the back yard.
  8. Construct your own puppet theater out of a washing-machine box. Cut an opening in the front and a door in the back. Make a curtain out of an old towel or sheet, and it's on with the show! (Then get to work making the puppets out of paper plates, bags, old socks, etc.)
  9. Make a lemonade stand.
  10. Draw a clown on the side of a large box, cut a round hole for a mouth, and throw beanbags at it. The bags will collect inside the box.

And one more…

Make a ticket booth out of a refrigerator box for all your backyard carnivals, plays, and puppet shows.

This great idea book is available from Creative Alternatives, P.O. Box 5100, Suite 101, Tyler, TX 75712.

© 1997 by Orthodox Family Life and the original author(s).
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