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The Refrigerator Box Turned Playhouse: Playthings That Encourage Kids to Imagine You can spend lots of hours and dollars getting the perfect toy for that favorite child in your life, hoping for the right combination of developmental appropriateness and joyful fun. And then what happens? The packaging, not the toy itself, turns out to be the star of the show. It can be both puzzling and fascinating to watch a child "make" a toy out of seemingly ordinary objects and play for hours. Why is she so interested in the tub that the alphabet magnets came in, rather than the magnetic letters themselves? Why has that huge refrigerator box taken over our living room? "As long as you are sure it's completely safe, there is no need to discourage kids from finding the play in a `toy' that was never intended to be one," says Paula Bolte, owner of Imaginations Toy & Furniture Co., toy stores in Blacksburg and Roanoke. "Kids can occupy themselves for hours with cardboard boxes because they are so creative. The box gives a child the room to exercise his imagination." That's why the National Toy Hall of Fame recently inducted The Cardboard Box to take its place among iconic childhood playthings like crayons, marbles, puzzles, and alphabet blocks. "Over the years, children sensed the possibilities inherent in cardboard boxes," notes the Toy Hall of Fame. "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. Inside a big cardboard box, a child is transported to a world of his or her own, one where anything is possible." "When you see kids use boxes and other containers to have so much fun, we think it gives just the right message to adults," says Paula. "The play in so many of today's toys is pre-engineered for children-the characters' personalities have been developed already on TV, or a chip imbedded in the toy directs the play, and so on. Kids who gravitate to `blank slate' types of toy are telling us grownups that they want to make it up themselves. We encourage parents to find toys that give kids as much room as possible to use their imaginations." Those refrigerator boxes and other open-ended toys that encourage creativity can have big payoffs for children's healthy development, notes Professor Edgar Klugman, Co-founder of Playing for Keeps, a national not-for-profit that promotes healthy, constructive play. "This kind of play promotes what we call self-directed experiential learning, which means kids figure things out and solve problems by themselves. You can't really teach those skills. Kids have to play around with them to learn them." Parents and other adults who would like to learn more about healthy, open-ended, child-directed play ideas can visit www.playingforkeeps.org or visit your local specialty toy store to talk with their play experts. For friends and family members that live far away, find their closest store at www.astratoy.org. |