Wednesday 29 July 2015

A Cardboard Box

June 22nd #20  

Imagination is a wonderful thing. In fact it's probably one of the best gifts we can give you and it won't cost anything, just a bit of thought and time and effort on our part.

There are so many fancy and expensive toys available and these are often pretty good but they can be pretty awful too. I can remember seeing adverts for things when I was young and getting so excited about having this toy or that. And this is the thing. How I imagined it would be was far better than how it ever was.

With a good imagination you can get lost in a cardboard box. It can be a house, a den, a spaceship.  It can be anything you put your mind to. We have a big box at the moment and as usual Kelda jumped straight in it. But it would be big enough for you to play in. We could cut out doors and windows and you could colour it in. It's often as much fun making things as it is playing with them.

Our washing machine was broken and the repairman came today. When he cleaned the filter amongst other things out popped a button. And that reminded me of your grandma's button jar. Now that was a truly amazing thing. It was full of all different buttons. I don't think any two of them were the same size or colour.

With a magic button jar, who needs Jack and the Beanstalk's magic beans? Don't get me wrong, your mum and I can't wait to read you all the fairy-tales and do all the funny voices. But wait until you have your own mum's button jar to play with. It kept me occupied for hours.

I've been saving buttons for a while now but they're not very exciting so I'm going to ask everyone to keep their eye out for fancy buttons for when you're a bit older. And I've been keeping a box of lost things. Your mum thinks I'm a bit crackers but I reckon you'll love playing with it.

We want to do all sorts to get your imagination going. We'll get you in the kitchen baking things, you're mum's a bit better than me at that but we'll all have a go. And wooden spoons and rolling pins, they don't belong in the kitchen; they belong in the games inside your head, along with a good saucepan.

Hopefully, when it's Christmas we'll make it look like it snowed inside and leave footprints for you to follow. When it's Easter we'll have eggs for you to find or at the Seder you'll have to find the afikoman. Your mum also says that there are treasure hunts we'll be able to do and set up. We’ll have a bit of a workshop in the garage/playroom hopefully and there we can take broken things to pieces and see if we can find the little people inside.

Toys are a great thing. I'd be a huge hypocrite if I said anything else. My flat is full of toys. But it's what you do with them or whatever else is around that makes things fun and different. Me and my cousin used to make tents and cars out of camp chairs and sun loungers. The stories you can tell and make up and the games you can play - that's what's exciting. You can be anything you like in your imagination. And if you can learn to fly using that, it will help you with everything else you ever do. 

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