Paper bags and real or play money add to the fun. When it's time to tidy up, stand the waste paper basket in the middle of the room and see who can throw the most in. A roll of white toilet tissue makes this game much more fun as Dads, Grans, teddies or dolls are mummified before your eyes. Plastic medicine spoons and cardboard box hospital beds for toys are extra props that make the game last longer. Cardboard tubes from kitchen roll or foil make instant telescopes for sailors or pirates, or tunnels to roll marbles through.
Babies love to watch things disappear then reappear out of the bottom.
Don't leave them alone with the cardboard tube though as they will probably suck it. Cardboard boxes must be about the best free toys you can get hold of. Push in the ends of large ones to make tunnels and caves to crawl through. Draw on windows and doors with felt tip pens to make a house, add a flag and portholes for a boat or paper plates and a steering wheel for a car. The foil trays that pies and prepared foods arrive in make lovely containers for miniature gardens.