Why do children play with a cardboard box when they have a room full of expensive toys?

Children have little concept of value, and what they sometimes see is the fun in something, in what it is, or what it can be, rather than relevant to it's cost value. I've heard plenty of stories where the parents have brought a motorized toy car for their child, and he's played with the box it came in for hours. It all has to do with imagination, so please, let your child’s continue to grow

Nobody seems to mention ages of kids on this site and I wonder why?? I would suspect that kids when growing up, want to explore strange things and play with their imagination, not play with things that are already staged by an older person. A cardboard box could be a secret dungeon, a fire truck anything that the kid wants to believe in, other then was manufactured by an older human being. Perhaps a magic carpet, who cares, just as long as the kid is happy. It also proves, that a thing as a simple box can have great escape for them means, that money means nothing to the kids. If you want to spend heaps on your kid, I feel sorry for you, as kids need to play and play they do, with cardboard boxes or bubble wrap. If the kids are young, buy some bubble wrap and they will spend hours just popping the wrap. I really cannot understand any parent, whom insists that their kids play with expensive toys instead of the toy the child wants to play with, like a cardboard box!

Expensive toys do nothing for the imagination. Toys can only be one thing, but a cardboard box is a mine of ideas, and stimulates the creativity in children. Boxes can be boats, cars, beds for dolls, TVs...the possibilities r endless!

Imagination is the way children best learn and discover new things.A child looks at a box with wonder and awe seeing it as a door to opportunities.In his mind,it is a box and his imagination can formulate ways to use this box.Children find joy,wonder in the simpliest things in life which explains why as long as there is opportunity to discover and venture,childrens' minds will be enriched.

Why do children have a room full of expensive toys when a cardboard box will do the trick? ;)

It's more fun because it stimulates their imagination more. because they aren't hindered by the physicality of the box, as it can be a house or a car or a whole jungle for that matter, while a toy truck will always be just what it is, a toy truck.

it is also more of a mental exercise and at the same time it teaches them resourcefulness and the idea that money does not always dictate the real value of stuff.

because no toy can rival the vast color, depth and variety of the human imagination


peace

This is an age old question with an obviouse answer. Immagination is funner than absolute objects that are meant to be one thing. What if your little girl wants to play Drive-Thru (I used to do it when I was young so I know that its a possibility) and all she has are barbies? You can immagine anything with a cardboard box because it isn't solidly something.

Just to annoy you, lol

Because expensive toys lack imagination, they're "figured out" and a cardboard box inspires a child to imagine, create and make whatever that box is (a house, hiding place etc) their own.

Children and even adults are imaginative. We all enjoy a nice toy and play with it put the time spent doing that will not compare to how much we imagine, roll play, and play "sandbox" style games that have freedom for that.

Because it's the perfect toy and very creative!
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So you may think there is nothing special about a box but really, has there ever been a more perfect toy for a child? Watching a child play with a box should convince you that kids don’t need elaborate lesson plans and expensive toys in order to learn. Sometimes all you need is….a box!

Some of the things kids pretend with a box…

To watch television,
To sail away in a boat,
To listen to a radio,
To fly away on a carpet,
To blast off in a spaceship,
To drive a car,
To pretend to be a turtle,
To live in a cave.

In the Doghouse
Make a house for a toy dog by turning a cardboard carton upside down and cutting a large door in one side. Place the doghouse, along with the toy dog, on the floor. Let your children take turns playing with the dog, moving it in and out of its house. If desired, add a dog dish, and dog toys, such as a ball or a rawhide bone. There’re a couple of books that would go very well with this activity. “Don’t Be Afraid, Tommy” by Klaus Baumgart and “Elmo’s New Puppy” by Catherine Samuel (Sesame Street)

Car Wash
Make a Car Wash by cutting off the top and bottom of a large cardboard appliance box, laying the box on the side, and then hanging a row of fabric strips from the ceiling across the midpoint. Reinforce the box by wrapping tape around its sides, if necessary. Let your children take turns riding trikes into and out of the Car Wash.

Pumping Gas
Use a medium-sized cardboard carton to make a gas pump. Cut a small hole in the side of the carton. Cut off three or four feet of the end of an old garden hose. Insert the cut end of the hose into the hole in the carton and tape it securely in place. Attach a pistol grip nozzle to the other end of the hose. Use felt tip markers to add desired “gas pump” details to the box. Let your children take turns using the gas pump to “fill up” toy vehicles.

Parade Floats
Set out several cardboard boxes to use for floats. Let your children decorate the boxes by coloring on designs with crayons, felt tip markers, or paint. If desired, provide children with seasonal shapes and crepe-paper streamers. Tie thick yarn handles to the fronts of the boxes. Place stuffed animals in the Parade Floats and pull them around the room.

Tunnels
Open both ends of your boxes; then tape them together with packing tape to form a tunnel. If desired, cut a few peek-a-boo holes along the tunnel to let in light. Position the tunnel so that youngsters can crawl through it.

More here
http://kcsos.kern.org/cccc/stories/storyReader$1107

When I was little I used to have a whole bunch of toys but I just wanted to play in the T.V. box. My sister did the same thing to. A box is so simple and it creates more imagination, it could be anything that you want it to be, whereas those expensive toys already is what it is and you can't really bend your mind to think of it any other way than the way it is. A box is simple and since kids don't really know about value, they go for the simple things, like a box.

A toy is what it is. A box can be anything you want it to be.