Eco-Friendly Country Cottage from Imagination Box Company

Every parent knows that a cardboard box always tops a child's list of favorite "toys." I am continually amazed at the creative uses Olivia finds for empty boxes -- and also at the fact that she is sometimes more smitten with the cardboard box than its fun contents!

The aptly named Imagination Box Company plays on a child's penchant for boxes by making them the main event! They offer a variety of eco-friendly toy boxes that kids may decorate and make their very own. Kids may choose between a barn, a country cottage, a firehouse/rescue station, or a schoolhouse. Each is made from sturdy double-walled corrugated board and comes with a set of eight, non-toxic washable watercolors. (Markers or crayons may also be used to bring the boxes to colorful life as well).

Charming details are drawn in black atop the white boxes and on their interiors, and they ship flat to make it easier for kids to decorate them before assembling them. Imagination Box Company suggests that coloring their boxes makes a great birthday party activity -- and the birthday boy/girl may cherish and play with the creation long after the party is over!

Imagination Boxes are made in the USA from 45% post consumer waste materials, and they are 100% recyclable at the end of their life. Kim and Russell Cash, creators and owners of Imagination Box Co. work with Panhandle Special Needs, Inc., where people with special needs in their local community assemble their playhouse boxes.

Furthermore, Kim and Russell don't just talk the green talk -- they walk the walk too! They live on five acres in beautiful northern Idaho where they thrive in all that Mother Earth has to offer them. They in a yurt, an environmentally sensitive dwelling, utilize solar power, including a solar oven and solar shower, tend a large garden and twelve chickens for their produce and nutritious brown eggs, and enjoy outdoor cooking with their mud oven!

Imagination Boxes are a great, green, fun way to spend time indoors this winter, collaborating with your kids on their design, and then playing with them with dolls and stuffed animals!