you've got mail!

I cannot understand how this wins out over other games and toys consistently, but it is one of the top three things we do with a box when we get one from our overworked UPS guy. If you activate your imagination mode, it is basically this but cheaper and more fun because you make it yourself! You can make a new one each month, when your next Amazon subscription of something kid/baby-related comes.

It can be summed up in a few simple steps:

1. Cut a slot (or two) in a box.

2. Put your mail in that box.

3. Make them open the box...and that's the way you do it!

Take everything out and repeat. Vary the sizes of the mail so they have to sort it and figure out where it goes. I sometimes give them real mail that is unimportant, or stickers to decorate the cardboard "postcards." For older kids who are reading or learning to read, you can label them with "Kitchen," "Living Room," etc. or other rooms and have them deliver the mail.  If you have two kids, you can have one deliver and one collect and they will madly run around your home like they are trapped in some M.C. Escher drawing.

See, it is basically the same thing!