Thinking outside the box

Trying to get children to look at things in a different way always seemed hard while I was teaching. They seem to get in this rut of... this is what it is and how it is used. Well... I'm not sure what happened to them, because if my son is any indication of typical toddler behavior then they should be very good at thinking outside the box.

I wonder sometimes why I buy Blake toys. Some of his favorite things to play with are empty diaper boxes, anything and everything he can pull out of the kitchen cupboard, and shoe laces. Blake get so excited when we go to BJ's because he knows he is going to get to play with a new diaper box. Before you even get the diapers out he is climbing up on top of it trying to use it to get to anything and everything out of his reach. This can be dangerous, but there is a fun factor in that too... right?

But, it's even more fun when it's empty... then you can climb on, in and under it! Blake loves to get inside the box and use the flaps to play peek-a-boo, doesn't even matter if someone is playing it with him or not. Blake will spend more time playing with an empty diaper box than he plays with all the rest of his toys combined.