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SOS: Save Our Sanity (Part 5)!!

Hi everyone and welcome back to SOS! Isolation day ____ ??? We’ve lost count BUT we are still playing! Always playing. The kids have been really into boxes. As a manufacturing company and with a house full of prototypes and products, we tend to have a lot of boxes. We always keep them as we are constantly shipping things out and need various sizes.

These boxes have come in handy since we’ve been quarantined!! The kids have gone crazy for them. Each wants a box (read multiple ;)) to call their own and they take pride in making them unique!

As you know….at Mobi we are all about open ended play and discovery. The freedom to explore, create, fail and reassess all help children learn. There are so many fancy tech toys and apps that complicate play. We are all about breaking those patterns down at Mobi. Yes, yes, we do make toys and games (we promise we try to keep them simple and open ended as possible) … but sometimes all kids need is a cardboard box!

Although not considered an “academic activity”, the free exploration that comes with open ended play plays such an important role in learning. One interesting thing that has come up as parents for us is our desire to “lead” the play…."let’s make this a castle”…."don’t smash the box!” for example. What we’ve learned is that we have to let them play. Let the kids smash the box, let them build what they want to build. Let them take the lead. We are just here to take the back seat and let the kids learn. Who is to say the smashed, flatten box isn’t the finished product?! Interesting right? Boxes have actually been a really cool lesson for us as parents.

Here are some things our little Mobi kids love to do with boxes:

Draw in them

Pretend they are cars

Make them into castles/forts

Smash them (!!!!)

Layers:

Something that we’ve recently done is add options to box play. For example, sometimes when we bring the boxes out, we bring glue and pipe-cleaners, stickers and/or paint. Adding layers adds to the imaginative play associated with box play. You can also think of it as adding layers of developmental play. For example, when you add in the stickers and pipe-cleaners, the littles being working on more fine motor skills. So much awesome going on with all of these options!

Positive Box Outcomes:

It’s been pretty neat to watch the way the kids treat each other since boxes have become a thing in our living room. They invite each other over to their boxes for a chat or for a color. They play nicely together when they make big forts. Really positive, social, sweet things are unfolding.

*I just had the thought that we should make little mail boxes or mail box slots in our boxes so we can write little notes to each other! How cute would that be??! More on that in a later post!

Okay – go grab a box!!!

Enjoy everyone!

Be well! 

Xo Team Mobi