My cat likes to hide in boxes.... it's a wonderful children's story basically saying how wonderful boxes are for playing in with the use of cats as main characters. In my house, the cats have company, even competition ( if they even get a look in ) as my toddler like to hide in boxes. She likes to wear them on her head ! She likes to fill them up with stuff, drag them around the house and empty them all over the place. An amazon deliver is received with glee from both the addressee and my wee one as she's got a new box to stack on and or inside the collection that she already has.
And it's not just boxes, she has large yogurt tubs that act as buckets and left over Christmas chocolate tins that double as drums. A paper towel tube or empty toilet paper roll becomes a telescope or loud speaker as she amplifies her voice through it.
My baking shelf is a sources of never ending wonder with all the containers of flour and sugar, shakers and spice bottles, measuring cups and weights. Varying sized bowls and silicone spatulas, cookie cutters and reusable cupcake trays and moulds.
I have an allocated cupboard full of mismatched Tupperware and lids and containers that she rearranges on a weekly basis. But nothing beats the entertainment and the noise level of a wooden spoon and over turned saucepan or metal bowl. Hours of fun !!
This is just when she is little, I am looking forward to when she will participate more fully in the activities , like baking with her. Giving her crayons and putting her inside the big box to draw to her hearts content. To fashioning, under her direction rockets and houses, or what ever she want to build with glue and tape and staples and paint using the recyclable paper goods. To showing her what sounds different cups of water make. We will be making mud pies in the saucepan and stirring it all up with the wooden spoons. We will make play dough with the flour and food colouring that takes minutes and lasts months https://theimaginationtree.com/best-ever-no-cook-play-dough-recipe
It may be a dark and dreary time , cold and wet. But it doesn't have to be boring. They may have got cabin fever and sick of their toys. ( I try to circulate the toys, putting some away so they are fresh and new on later date ) But new weird and wonderful activities are in your kitchen cupboards. Used every day items that find new form and function in a toddlers imagination. Sometimes the best things are right in front of you !
That or rug up and pop on wellies and channel your inner Peppa Pig.... puddle jumping outside or running around the garden till your fingers go numb then inside for a hot drink and cuddle. Like Dorothy said , there is no place like home.
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