380. INFANZIA SBS. Unboxing Potential: The Endless Learning Adventures of a Simple Cardboard Box

Nella ricerca di giocattoli e attività per i bambini di oggi, ci imbattiamo in una varietà di opzioni sofisticate, da giocattoli tecnologici a complessi set di gioco. Tuttavia, a volte, tutto ciò di cui hanno realmente bisogno è una semplice scatola di cartone. Questo articolo esplora come un oggetto così ordinario possa trasformarsi in uno strumento eccezionale di apprendimento e gioco creativo.

Search for any toys and activities for young children nowadays and you’ll find a multitude of options from fancy tech toys to apps to complicated play sets all promising to help children’s learning, but sometimes all they really need is a cardboard box. A plain cardboard box can make for an exceptional learning experience!

Why are we telling you this? Because we have experienced it first-hand with our Little Red Bunnies.  Last month we worked around a book, King Jack and the Dragon. This beautifully illustrated book gave us the opportunity to journey through the wonders and terrors created by a child’s imagination and it shows the power of playtime and the magic of make-believe…it reminded me a bit of Where the Wild Things Are. 

Open-ended and free exploration plays a very important role in learning. When we give children the freedom and opportunity to explore, create, fail and reassess, we are helping them to form connections in the brain. All engaging experiences – even ones from cardboard boxes – help children learn about the world around them and how they influence it.

We learnt that there are six learning dimensions supported by cardboard box play: spatial awareness, comfort and security, empowerment, control, asensory play, and imagination. We can vouch for all of them!

Think about it, babies do it, toddlers do it, preschoolers do it. (And I bet more than once you’ve secretly wanted to do it, too.) The first thing little kids do when confronted with a cardboard box is try to get in it. Cute as this is, there’s actually an important reason why they do this. It’s called spatial awareness. There’s an emotional component to seeking out small spaces which give children a sense of security and comfort.  Right from the start, children are soothed by a sense of being bundled up or embraced in their caregiver’s arms; this need for “denning” continues throughout childhood (and I would argue throughout life) because in many ways, it’s a subconscious return to the comfort of the womb.

Furthermore the humble cardboard box is a great example of an asensory environment. The brown color suggests nothing in particular, the smooth sides imply little, the cube structure defines empty space, the subtle smell lacks distraction, the sound of the cardboard folding is muted and music-less; this relief from the sensory world may explain, in part, why kids find the confines of a cardboard box so appealing.

Turning a box into a plaything is also an eco-friendly first lesson in waste-not, want-not, so when we gave our children cardboard boxes we tried to encourage them to think about the concept of reusing things for other purposes.  As for imagination you might want to encourage a few ideas to get them started, and before you know it, you won’t be able to get them out of it!

So next time you come across a cardboard box, consider its potential for your kids and remember to inspire your child’s imagination, encourage them to explore and create using whatever is around them, the possibilities are endless.

Don’t let your child limit themselves, help them learn to think, grow, explore, create and imagine out of - or even inside of - the box!