I must say we had a great Holiday Season, surrounded by lots of family, (a little alcohol) and lots of good food. Now things are slowly going back to normal and the kids and I are always looking for fun things to do around here…which brings me to big, empty cardboard boxes!! Post-Holidays, once the gift-giving season is over, everyone ends up with lots of cardboard boxes. For some, they are just stuff that gets discarded, but in our home, we get excited with the possibilities (yes, they are endless). Most of the time we only have access to small cardboard boxes (cereal, crackers, etc). And before they go into the recycling bin I let the kids have some fun with them. They usually turn the boxes into tunnels, houses and sky scrappers for the little cities they like to build for their cars. But not yesterday. Yesterday was a special day because we had some BIG cardboard boxes. Boxes so big they were just perfect for building something really fun.
We had a quick vote and decided to build an airplane. We gathered our materials and got to work. A few cuts here and there. Lots of clear tape, lots of hot glue and we soon had a very cool airplane. Our DIY cardboard box airplane even had a little console made out of an egg carton that was strategically placed on the dashboard, rear lights and even some “smoke” that comes out from the back (all Phoenix’s ideas). The kids loved helping with the build of the plane and had a blast “flying” it. Phoenix even looked the part by wearing a cap and safety goggles.
The plane was roomy enough to fly passengers to exotic destinations:
After flying a while at high altitudes, even the pilot can get a little dizzy:
I hope this post inspires you to look at your empty boxes in a different way and I hope it inspires you to build your very own DIY cardboard box airplane. If you are not in the mood for a cardboard airplane, take a look at this great collection of play things made out of cardboard boxes: Cardboard Box Play Things Board on Pinterest.
I love it! So creative! When our daughter was little, she was really into Batman. One day we took big pieces of cardboard, cut it into “wings,” painted it black and taped them onto her toy ride-in fire engine to make a batmobile. She loved it! I think it’s great to teach kids to make things rather than buy everything.