Cheap Rainy Day Activities to Do with Your Kids Using a Cardboard Box

It may be a rainy day outside, or your children have just grown bored with their toys, and you are looking for something new to keep them occupied and entertained. I have found that what keeps my children's interest the longest isn't a new toy, but rather something much more simple and less expensive: a cardboard box! So give your children some cardboard boxes, a few art supplies, and some ideas and they will easily be entertained. Here are a few ideas and suggestions to help inspire hours of creative fun!

1) Cut out a refrigerator or other large appliance box so that it can be laid flat and have your kids paint a giant mural on it. When it dries, they can turn it over and do the other side as well.

2) Make a dollhouse from a medium sized box. Smaller boxes, covered with scraps of fabric or otherwise decorated, can be used to make small tables, chairs, and beds to furnish the house.

3) Build a robot out of several different sized boxes using cardboard paper towel or wrapping paper tubes for limbs. Add buttons, felt, and ribbon for eyes, mouth, and other features. Shoe boxes are the perfect size for robot feet.

4) Create a submarine. Cut out port holes and make a periscope from from a cardboard tube. Use paint, crayons, or markers to decorate the outside. Have them name their vessel.

5) Make a puppet show theater using an old sheet for the curtain. Have them put on a show for you.

6) Construct a castle from an appliance box, cutting notches into the top like a castle wall. Create a drawbridge by cutting the top and sides of the opening but leaving the bottom "hinge" intact.

7) Make a grocery store out of a big box and stock it with empty cans, milk cartons, soda bottles, and cereal boxes. Use play money or have them make their own money and let them pretend to go shopping.

8) Cut a hole in a box and practice throwing beanbags or balls through it. Award points and see which player can score the most.

9) Build a train by connecting several boxes together. Color the cars, draw or sut out windows and doors. You can even create a smokestack with an extra box or cardboard tube. Take stuffed animals, action figures, or dolls on a ride.

10) Take a box and flatten it out to make a runway for toy planes or a raceway for matchbox cars or trucks. Use masking tape to mark lanes or as a finish line.

Once they get started, the possibilities are endless!