Oatmeal boxes are a great size and shape for many purposes. Since you are buying oatmeal anyway you may as well put the box to good use. Here are some ideas.
Letter Box: Place foam letters, magnetic letters and wooden letter beads in the oatmeal box. Have your child pull out letters for letter recognition. You can have your child write the letter or find an object which starts with that letter around the house. You can also fill the box with pictures of items and have your child match the image to the letter the word starts with.
Number Box: Place foam numbers, magnetic numbers and wooden number beads in your box. When your child picks a number have him count to that number and find that number of an object in the house. You can add in some dice and have your child roll the dice and find the number that corresponds.
Chore Box: Print out on paper a list of chores from feeding the pet to brushing teeth and paste on large craft sticks. On one tip of the craft stick color it one color to indicate it needs to be done. On the opposite tip color it another color to indicate the task has been completed. As your child completes each task have him flip the craft stick to the other side.
Mini Toy Box: An oatmeal box is a great size for small toys like cars, bouncy balls, and animal figures. Store them in a box and mark the box with which type of toy it is for inexpensive organization. You can also use the mini toy box as a travel toy box since the size is just right to bring in the car for long rides.
Art Supply Box: Need a place to store crayons, markers, stickers, child safe scissors and glue sticks? You can store all of those in one box or use several boxes to organize your art supplies.
Boredom Buster Box: Fill the box with ideas for your child to do when he says, “there’s nothing to do, mom, I’m bored.”