Encourage kids to play “With the Box” not “Out of the Box”
After the first month into our lockdown, my kids had used all their toys, I had rotated them into and out of the closet, and things were starting to get “boring.” I don’t believe we need to keep kids entertained all the time, but as parents we need to create the conditions for kids to learn to deal with boredom on their own.
This turned from a drawback to an opportunity. We started saving every cardboard box, empty can, plastic bottle we once considered trash. It was then when we started playing “with the box” and not “out of the box.”
Constraints that Promote Creativity
We are usually told that to be creative we have to “think out of the box.” But it is when we challenge kids to overcome constraints “with the box” rather than with what is “out of the box” that we inspire them to create. Toys that come in the box often promote a user mindset. If we shift our focus to the box, we can develop a creator mindset.
The idea that we can produce boundless and limitless thinking through boundaries and limits, seems paradoxical. But if we look at the skills, such as creativity, problem solving, risk taking, at work when we face constraints, we can identify which kinds best promote creativity, rather than diminish it. "Creativity involves breaking out of expected patterns in order to look at things in a different way." -- Edward de Bono
A cardboard box can be so much more than a box if we develop the skill to look at it in a different way.
Creator Economy Skill Development
We are living in the creator economy age. Individuals are pushed to work independently, take risks, and facilitate growth. It is a time where putting your eggs in one basket is a risk. The creator economy rewards the creation of multiple income streams.
When kids play with cardboard boxes we help them think like creators and not like users. By creating the conditions for play through materials that push creativity, we replace their “what do I have to do?” attitude with “what can I do? ” The earlier kids decide to take risks and give the hard things a chance, the more likely they will develop a creator mindset as they grow up.
Are we preparing kids with the skills developed through constraints that are needed to succeed?
Benefits of Playing with an Empty Box:
Creative play is self-initiated and self-directed. When kids engage in creative play, they express themselves beyond the verbal. Play becomes an outlet for whatever they are feeling or making sense of in their life.
My kids started to dive deep into cardboard box creations. They turned the lawn mower box into a princess carriage, the Lucky Charms box into flip flops, and the amazon box into a laptop like “mommy’s.”
I started to see the creative transformation in my kids' decision making. What once was a lack of toys or entertainment, could be resolved by turning a box into their own creations. When we give children the freedom and opportunity to explore, create, fail and reassess, we are helping them to form connections in the brain.
Now, I lean towards toys that spark imagination and creativity.
I want my kids to think like creators and less like users. I want them to tell stories, rather than repeat information, and create new ideas rather than emphasize existing ones.
I can see that by playing “with the box,” my kids have developed a creator mindset that thinks “out of the box.” They test, ideate, problem solve, succeed, and fail. But their desire to create is alive.
