Big Boxes

As we discussed in an earlier post in January Bentley got a fun cardboard space shuttle from Greta, a family friend. The children had a great fun playing in it and coloring on it. However, it's quite large and it took up a good deal of space in the main floor family room, so last week Kara said it had to go. The children helped take it down. Deconstruction is always more fun than construction. Why is that?

Just a couple of hours after taking the space shuttle down, the children decided to go downstairs and play with the large boxes down there. Huh? We took down the space shuttle because it wasn't being used and suddenly the children had to go play with other large boxes?

We had two large boxes downstairs because last month we got a new washer. When it was delivered Kara asked the delivery men if they had other large boxes not yet crushed in their delivery van. We scored a second box. We threw the boxes in the downstairs family room. Then we left on vacation and the boxes were forgotten. When we took down the space shuttle the children suddenly remembered the big boxes downstairs.

The trio have some kind of game going on. They create challenges (their word, not mine). I think (I don't want to know too much or I might have to put a stop to these games!) the goal is to climb into the boxes from various places--the sofa, the chairs, the counter, who knows. The boxes are filled with sofa cushions and soft chairs and whatever else the children have found to cushion their fall. The boxes are taller than the children.

During session one of the challenges one of the boxes was destroyed. The trio turned it into a slide. They put the slide on the stairs and had a great time. They don't always observe good safety rules, so there were a few bumps.

They asked me to come downstairs and help them set up one of their challenges. The flattened box was on the lower flight of stairs. They wanted to slide down the stairs and into the second box. The problem was the second box was too tall. I suggested they put the box on its side and slide into it that way. They informed me that that wasn't enough of a challenge.

As I left I heard Bentley going on about Level 2 challenges. I stopped to ask a few questions. It appears there were 15 challenges to Level 1. Now it was time to make more difficult challenges--hence the attempt to add a steep incline using the stairs. Maybe I should sabotage the second box before someone gets hurt? Is there an OSHA for homes?

After dinner Mark and I went down to observe what exactly they were up to. It turns out the challenge wasn't getting into the box, it was getting out of the box. The pillows and foam chairs were thrown into the box not to cushion their fall, but to aid in climbing out. Bentley said that he and Viva were good at getting out, but Jake sometimes needed help. (Help was your siblings pushing the box over with you in it.)

The trio were also building a bridge from the back of the couch to the box a few feet away. They used the broken down box as a bridge. Two would stand under the box holding it up with their heads while the other one would crawl across. It was a fairly good plan except that they tended to crawl on the crease which was the weakest part of the bridge.

We gave them a few safety tips and left. I think we'll have to steal the boxes away during the next recycling day before someone gets hurt.