{"id":648,"date":"2024-02-02T17:10:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T17:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/?p=648"},"modified":"2024-02-02T23:49:12","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T23:49:12","slug":"valentines-day-cardboard-mailbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/02\/valentines-day-cardboard-mailbox\/","title":{"rendered":"Valentine&#8217;s Day Cardboard Mailbox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For kids, Valentine&#8217;s Day is about sending love to family and friends &#8211; sometimes through the mail.  Last year, my kids were very interested in the concept of mailing valentines.  So, I used two cardboard boxes, some hot glue and red paint to make a mailbox for them.  A pretty simple project that has received a lot of love from my kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1217-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"valentine's day cardboard mailbox\" class=\"wp-image-652\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1217-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1217-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1217-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1217-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1217-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested in how it was made, here&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/littleredwindow.com\/diy-cardboard-mailbox\/\">link<\/a> to the instructions I slightly adapted.  I recommend reinforcing the floor, because if the box is big enough &#8211;  your kids will climb inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I brought out the mailbox again this year and it has proved just as popular.  Next to the mailbox I set out some of our favourite play letters and envelopes.  The kids have so much fun mailing valentines and using the tins to create &#8220;packages&#8221;.  The felt envelopes (from <a href=\"https:\/\/sewingseedsplay.com\">Sewing Seeds Play<\/a>) have a felt letter inside and the kids enjoy putting all kinds of treasures in the envelope.  The wood letters are from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theeyespyclub.com\">Eye Spy Club<\/a> and make a very satisfying &#8220;plop&#8221; when put through the mail slot.  The acrylic letters and velcro stamps are new to us this year (from <a href=\"https:\/\/starsandsensory.ca\">Stars and Sensory<\/a>).  You can write with a dry erase marker on the acrylic and stick on the stamps and tokens with velcro.   So fun!  I also put out some paper, cards, envelopes and a pencil so they can create and write their own valentines.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"651\" src=\"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1211-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"felt, acrylic and wood play letters\" class=\"wp-image-651\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1211-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1211-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1211-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1211-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1211-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"650\" src=\"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1213-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"acrylic play letters and velcro stamps\" class=\"wp-image-650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1213-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1213-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1213-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1213-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_1213-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Besides a traditional mailbox, the box has also been a bridge, a house and a moving truck.  I love how creative kids are with cardboard boxes.  The possibilities are endless.  What are some of your kids&#8217; favourite uses for cardboard boxes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For kids, Valentine&#8217;s Day is about sending love to family and friends &#8211; sometimes through the mail. Last year, my kids were very interested in the concept of mailing valentines. So, I used two cardboard boxes, some hot glue and red paint to make a mailbox for them. A pretty simple project that has received &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/02\/valentines-day-cardboard-mailbox\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Valentine&#8217;s Day Cardboard Mailbox&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,28],"tags":[102,100,96,101],"class_list":["post-648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-diy","tag-cardboardmailbox","tag-cardboardplayideas","tag-kidsvalentinesplay","tag-valentinesplay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":662,"href":"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions\/662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahouseofplay.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}