“Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.”  ~Plato

If I could include a soundtrack of my boy playing in this cardboard box, you would not be able to read it, from the tears of laughter in your eyes. Seriously. This kid cracks me up. When I gave my teenage son the task of decorating the inside of a cardboard box like a monster truck rally arena, then filled the box with busted up crayons and a few accessories, I never thought it would be this much of a hit. But it was. And it still is. Oh, and the noise! The kind of noise that makes a mumma smile. It’s the noise of a boy completely entertained by his own imagination. And that’s the best kind of noise.

To create your own joyful noise, start with a cardboard box. I used smashed up crayons in the box because I LOVE COLOUR! I also thought the broken crayons lent themselves to the whole smashing, driving, crushing theme very well. My 15-year-old decorated the sides of the box to add to the ambience of this small world.The crayons also can be used by the kids to colour on the box as they please…giving it their own bit of flair, and an extra dimension to the activity.

Using discarded crayons also gave my boy the chance to BREAK the crayons. I don’t know how many times I got in trouble as a kid for breaking a new crayon…it was just so tempting! This way, they can smash, break, crush, and splinter the crayons and it’s all ok. What’s not to like about that?

Now to get down to the business of playing! I added the barrels from our fire station play set, the signs from our car play set, and some rubber tires from trucks that had long since lost 1 or 2. The black wooden tires came from our Lightning McQueen wooden play set. I did not buy anything new for this activity. My boy added the little matchbox cars so his big trucks would have something to jump over or crush.It wasn’t long before the little cars were making death-defying leaps over the whole arena!WRECKAGE!!And the tow truck, which my son also added, was there to help with any totalled vehicles…

So start collecting your crayons and broken wheels and let those boys start smashin’! It’s really a joyful thing to watch.Thanks for stopping by!!