Now you may look at the picture below and think, “Wow. A cardboard mailing tube. And I should care because…?”
But if you’re a certain five year-old, you’d see that mailing tube, ask your daddy to cut the ends off of it, and then you’d christen ye olde mailing tube as “THE MOST! AWESOME! SUPER SLIDE! EVVVVVVVER!”
And see those Star Wars action figures off to the side of the picture? Super Slide casualties. Which is understandable, of course. The Super Slide is very tricky.
Now I certainly don’t wish bodily harm on the Stormtroopers. That would just be wrong. But I’m thinking that they’re gonna have to buck up, throw on an air cast, and brave the Super Slide again, because that sassy cardboard cylinder has provided HOURS of entertainment this week.
Hours.
In fact, I’m thinking of having it bronzed.
So. What’s the favorite non-toy toy in your house? Think it can go toe-to-toe with THE MOST AWESOME SUPER SLIDE EVVVVVVVER?
Holla back in the comments. I have a feeling I’m going to laugh my head off when I read them.
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I am the nanny for my 1 year old niece. Her favorite toy for the past 3 or 4 months (since she started crawling) has been an old USB mouse. She like carrying it around by the cord, chewing on the end and clicking the buttons. She also has an old keyboard to round out the set, but she doesn’t play with that nearly as much.
My daughter’s favorite is her box of hair things. She’ll sit and take each little miniscule rubber band or bow out. Then she’ll examine the brush and the conditioning spray. Then she’ll hand some of it to me. Then she takes it back. And so on…
For my fellas? Hands down, the favorite is my iPhone. Nothing relieves a little preschool tension like popping the bubble wrap app.
Our two backyard soccer goals, currently being used as a house/fort/cave complete with a table cloth roof, aprons tied to the sides, and lots of stuffed animals living in there.
We don’t actually own very many toys because my children can make toys out of everything they get their hands on.
ANYTHING that is destined for the garbage is fair game here. Scraps of fabric, bubble wrap, cardboard boxes…
And then there toys of the outdoor variety. Sticks mostly. We have a little pile of sticks right outside the back door because of the “No sticks in the house! rule. Mean mama that I am.
Great topic.
Kate
Wow! This is reminiscent of a “toy” I had as a child! My dad brought a cardboard tube home that was kind of like that, except for child size! It wasn’t quite as long as yours seems, but we spent many an hour playing, hiding in and sliding down in!
Ahh, much fun!
Amanda
My children love the clothes baskets. One will sit in it while the other one pulls them. You know like a high speed race car. My son does most of the pulling and he thinks it is funny when his little sister crashes.
The cutest thing ever was when my son was about four and he was totally into knights. He got the tin foil and tape and made his very own knight suit. He had to walk very slow and robot like so he wouldn’t rip his suit. It was adorable!
This is my first time posting a comment on your site. I read your posts everyday and totally love it. I have gotten a few of my friends addicted too!
Our non-toy would be siblings. They make noise! And holla! And squeal! And run! Real fast!
Also, I’m thinking that the leaves in the yard are awfully good entertainment for the youngest two. They love to feel them and tear them and look!at them!
Wish I could hug your neck again, Sophie.
My daughter is almost 2, and her favorite non-toy is my cell phone – she’s managed to call her pediatrician when she was feverish, and once she called her Grandma when her Winnie the Pooh DVD needed to be restarted. :-)
*birch tree bark makes great indian canoes a la “last of the mohicans”
*rosebuds make great lipsticks
*shedded locust shells make great monsters, or barbie pets, or even warning crunchers for booby-trapping an entrance to the tree house :)
can you tell my kids have always loved playing outside?
Large cardboard boxes are always a hit around here.
You know what else he could do with that tube?
My 6 y/o niece picked up an empty wrapping paper tube earlier this week and looked through it. She made pirate noises, and said, “Arrrr, I spy the treasure!” After looking around at things for a minute, she said, “I see your heart!”
She then put down the roll and queried, “Do you know why your heart is a treasure?”
“Why?” I asked, not really paying much attention.
“Because Jesus lives in your heart,” she responded.
What they can do with cardboard tubes…
1. Water
2. Baby Shampoo
3. Wipes
In any order, in any combination, in any quantity.
My daughter is 3 1/2,and I can always get at least 90 min. with these items.
At our house it’s kitchen utensils! This mama has quite frequent bouts of “Where’s the (insert specific utensil here)?!!?” while trying to cook dinner. The usual suspects are the cheese grater (not a sharp one, used for banging with a stick), the strainer, the lemon juicer-squeezer thingie, the egg slicer (who hasn’t banjoed with their mama’s egg-slicer!?!) and the whisk. When they were tiny babies, measuring cups and spoons were the big hits. The other day the two year old found my french rolling pin and started wielding it like a club on the furniture…with a Silpat on her head! Maybe there’s a future famous chef living in my house! A mom can dream…
At our house, empty pizza boxes can fuel hours of entertainment. They are turned into shields, treasure boxes, and neighborhoods for small animals. My 7 year old can play for hours in the bathroom sink with Polly Pockets, Barbies, My Little Ponies and plastic animals. They have pool parties, take a bath, go to the salon, and rescue each other from shark attacks. Plus, I have to mop afterwards so I get a dreaded chore out of the way, too!
It’s a toss up between bubble wrap and boxes. I have actually gone out and bought the big rolls of bubble wrap strictly for entertainment purposes. The best is rolling it out in the driveway and jumping on it- sounds like firecrackers!
Boxes are also a huge hit. A few leftover boxes and some duct tape and my kids are entertained for DAYS- even the teenagers will get involved. Although they’re ‘just helping’ of course- being teenagers, they’re way to cool to actually enjoy box-fort-building! Or so they say…
I agree about the laundry baskets! Attach the tie from dad’s bathrobe, take turns pulling, and it’s like Disneyland….a frugal, frugal Disneyland…
When I saw the tube picture I thought “oh, they got a loo-loo”. My son would use the empty paper towel roll and sing “loo, loo, loooooo” through it. Now we always call it a “loo loo.” Very embarassing when using that term outside of our own home. Allegedly. (at least he didn’t sing “Ricola!” I guess….)
Ali’s favorite for quite a while was one of her Daddy’s Diet Mountain Dew Bottles with a bit of water in it. She carried it around with her, called it “Da-y Bottle!!”, kept it in her toybox, basically worshipped it. I think it was like a special item to remind her of Daddy when he wasn’t around. Like a ring, or a necklace, or a keychain. Except it was a Diet Mountain Dew Bottle.
Tassels.
Yes…tassels.
And, might I gently add, the tassels FROM MY VERY NICE BEDROOM PILLOWS THAT CAME FROM STEINMART(s).
Over a course of about two weeks, our youngest son systematically removed eight (count them…8!) tassels from my bedroom pillows. He is fascinated by tassels. We found them under the couch, under his bedroom pillow, under his bed…everywhere.
Clothes baskets! I was just taking pictures of them playing with the baskets yesterday and am planning on posting them on my blog this weekend! They also love cardboard tubes (they fight over the ones in the recycling boxes). And they make forts using bed sheets. Why,again,do we buy toys?
Scotch tape! Yards of it!
Laundry baskets, yes. Boxes, yes. Currently my kids love to cut up junk mail and make–I don’t really know what they make with it, besides a mess, but it keeps them occupied.
When I was a kid, my mom would give me a bucket of water and a big paintbrush, and tell me to paint the cement patio. Apparently I liked how shiny it got…but then it would dry before I could finish, so I’d start all over again…and again. Mom says it kept me busy for hours. What can I say? I was quite an intelligent child.
My nephews once swiped my bra and used it as a pseudo-slingshot until I caught them. Thankfully, they no longer live with us and therefore have less access to my laundry pile. They do live five minutes from us, though, so I watch them like hawks when they come over.
Around here it’s empty Diet Dr. Pepper cartons. They slide over my 4 yr. old’s arm, and he’s instantly a transformer. I have to keep at least 2 around here for him. And also empty paper towel rolls, for a pirate’s scope. He has also used padded envelopes over his hand as transformer arms. Also, laundry baskets for animal traps. And many others I can’t think of right now!
This is so funny! My son is 9 months old, and he LOVES everything that’s NOT a toy. Oh, he likes his toys okay, but if you surround him with a circle of ten toys, and put anything that’s not a toy outside the circle, he will promptly leave the circle to get that item. Some of his favorite items are trash- any crinkly snack wrappers (those freezie-ice wrappers especially) or popsicle sticks.
We’re finally past this stage, but once upon a time the industrial size Huggies box would provide hours of entertainment as a:
a) boat
b) car
c) airplane
d) hiding place
e) turtle shell
Xandra
I wrote a post not long ago about why I had a Capri-Sun box taped with black electrical tape to my kitchen table.
Oh yes, it was cut in half long-ways (by my husband, the biggest kid of them all!) and taped over the edge, like the thing that catches the hockey pucks in air hockey.
My kids were standing at each end with a blue plastic cup from the cupboard in their hand to hit the bottle cap “puck” into each others box.
HOURS! HOURS OF ENTERTAINMENT— FROM TRASH!
If you need a picture, here you go: You’ll have to scroll to the bottom of the post. :)
http://kachoo5.blogspot.com/2008/07/funday-monday.html
Non toy fave – the cats. One of ours is so laid back he lets my daughter push him in a baby stroller. :)
My husband always gripes about the fact that we spend tons of money on big expensive toys for our daughter, only to have it discarded for the box it came in.
In our house it’s the carpet sweeper. Chickabid absolutely adores it – he loves pushing it about and playing with it…he’s 7 but it is his all time favourite toy.
My 15 month old son’s favorite non-toy is the empty pop bottle. We live in Michigan where we save and recycle our bottles to get the 10 cent deposit back, so we keep a small recycle bin in our kitchen. He loves to take them out and carry them around the house. Keeps him happy for minutes.
Oh, and when he’s teething or overtired? The remote control works wonders. Better than a teddy bear. It’s strangely comforting for him. I fear he’s turning into a tv junkie like his Momma.
These are all great ideas!
Here’s a few more that my almost 2-year-old daughter enjoys:
1) an empty peanut butter jar and lid (to be filled with small objects and shaken until they fly all over the place)
2) Post-it notes
3) plastic lids off of juice bottles and milk jugs
4) flashlights
5) the light switch on the dryer when I’m doing laundry
6) a wet washcloth – she will wash down anything in her path if you give her one of these
Well. This week it’s the expired plastic cards that I cleaned out of my wallet. My toddler immediately wanted in on the plastic action and confiscated several library/grocery cards. She worked very hard to slip the cards down her onesie, where they stayed all day. She did not learn this technique from me. I almost NEVER hide my valuables in my onesie.
When I went to changer her diaper a few minutes ago, an offer I couldn’t refuse (and that we’d both forgotten about) was stuck to her belly.
Don’t have any kids around here, but I remember a non-toy fave that my dad built for my sister and me when we were little.
He worked for a big national company, and one summer they were buying a large lot of new Steelcase desks. He brought home several of the huge cardboard cartons the desks came in and “banished” us from the basement. For two full days and nights, we weren’t allowed down there. When finally the unveiling came, we were giggly with glee. He had cut and whittled and fashioned those boxes into a five room “house” complete with working windows and doors. He’d used old hardware he had for the handles on the doors and latches on the windows. We called every friend we had, moved in a ton of pillows and blankets and stuffed animals, and our parents didn’t see us again for about six weeks! Because the cardboard was so sturdy and the “house was inside, it lasted for a long, long time.
We LOVED that thing. My dad has always been so clever and creative, and I think he got more joy out of watching us adore his creation than we did playing in it.
Thanks for that walk down “Memory Lane.” I’m going to call my dad now and thank him for making such wonderful memories for me.
Once I had some old oranges that were not moldy, but were too “pithy” to eat. My kids begged me for them, and they played with them ALL DAY LONG. They all had names and personalities.
The same thing happened once when I was digging up some bulbs from some sort of daylily that I didn’t want anymore in my garden. My kids carved faces in them (their roots were hair), and played house all the livelong day.
It warms the cockles of my heart when they do stuff like that. For all the techy-ness of the world, imagination still rules.
My boys love the fly swatter (ewwww!)
My favorite toy as a child was carbon paper. I could make a mean job app at 10 yrs old.
clothes pins
baskets or bowls or boxes
shoes (my 19 m-o son LOVES to walk around in anyone’s shoes)
my kitchen sweeper
Shoe boxes. They are doll beds. Dog cages. They store ‘llections. Also laundry baskets. My girls flip them upside down, and one of them will be a caged animal.
When my youngest was about 18 mos. old, he carried around a spray bottle of glass cleaner and a wad of toilet paper for weeks. He could not actually turn the nozzle to make it spray, but he pretended. That bottle went every with him – to the pool, in the high chair, the bathtub, etc.
The all time favorite in our house is boxes/laundry baskets. They play with them all the time in different ways. So funny, that I posted a pic on my blog.
The second favorite is credit cards. Either the ones that come in the mail with a fake name or old expired ones. They love to pretend to “buy” stuff
cut a pool noodle in half. it makes a great marble “slide”. use the two halves to have marble races.
beware of marbles underfoot though.
Most recently an empty diaper box. The 2 year old and 5 year old played till all sides collapsed and came to tears a few times while trying to ‘share’.
Oh, almost forgot…
An Elmo birthday card.
The 2 year old loves Elmo (don’t they all!) and when he opened his birthday card with Elmo on the front, held it tight, talked to Elmo incessantly and invited Elmo to have cake and ice cream. He had no idea what his gifts were…it was an all Elmo night.
My couch makes an excellent trampoline when I’m not looking.
Icaught my girls making their own “technology.”
One of them made a small cardboard iPod. Saw her walking around the house with an actual set of earbuds plugged into the box.
They’ve also made a laptop out of a pizza box, I think.
They’ve saved us hundreds of dollars.
My son has had one of those telescoping swifter duster handles for over a year. He uses it for everything from a sword to a microphone and just today it was a “hobo stick” to carry his bandanna that he had all his stuff tied up in. It’s way better than any toy – and the thing hasn’t broken after all this time.
All the Stormtroopers, DOWN the TUBES?
I’m betting Darth Vader is fit to be tied!!
Gotta love those imaginative “toys”. “Round here it’s a bag of black beans, a muffin tin, and a coffee scoop; keeps the toddler happy for hours (minutes at least).
Non-toy toys around here usually involve food (even though they aren’t supposed to play at the table!) Just check out the post I put up this afternoon.
http://pinkadoodledoo.blogspot.com/2008/09/name-that-picture.html
My 7 month old loves to play with measuring cups.
Oh, and the dog’s tail.:)
Long time reader. First time comment leaver.
I took one look at that picture, and thought to myself. “That’s the worlds most super awesome, biggest light saber I have ever seen”. Now that I know what it really is I can spread the word to my 5 & 3 year old.
In are house anything that has even a slightly tubular shape is a light saber. Their favorite is the straw. We have them all over are house. They often eat there fast food real quickly so they can use their straws, then steal yours. Then they have the world’s most super awesome, biggest, light saber battle ever seen.
The funny thing is we have 5 of the toy light sabers. One in every color. Go figure. They hardly ever see those little hands.
Exercise mat!!! We bought it to stretch and exercise….our 4 year old slides down the hall with it, does flips, treats it like a trampoline, all manner of activities….Who woulda thunk it???
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