The look on my daughter's face is priceless when she discovers baskets placed throughout our house.These baskets are filled with items she can safely explore with all of her senses and though supervision is vitally important, I am careful not to interfere with exploration. As my Little investigates the items, I observe and gather data to guide my choices for future baskets or shelf work.
For Little, these little baskets are an absolute joy because she has an opportunity to explore, discover, and investigate unfamiliar items I've taken from different areas of the house. I like to include items we will work with later during language or another area of study. Once she discovers the basket, Little becomes enthralled with the contents and usually investigates for 10 or more minutes. It's so cute to see this little person who once couldn't sit up alone, crawl so quickly to explore the house for new things to discover.
From left upper corner to right- color exploration, wood, life skills, and music. The color exploration basket basically has items of the color we are studying. The wooden/nature basket includes items from nature and wooden items. The life skills basket includes baby size items she'll use to take care of herself. This week's life skills theme is "I can feed myself", consequently there is a bowl, spoon, fork, small glass, bottle and a sponge used to clean up after eating. Finally, the sound basket contains music instruments and a few rattles I made.
Though I've made many different treasure baskets for my daughter, presently we have color exploration, wood/nature, life skills, and a sound treasure basket.
If you have an infant or toddler, try creating a treasure basket with various items from your home. Remember to keep it simple, interesting, safe and fun. Gather items you already have and put them in baskets in places your baby likes to explore. Once your child discovers them, resist the urge to interfere instead take advantage of the opportunity to observe. An added bonus is you may find you can complete a task or two as your Little will be busy looking for the next discovery awaiting him!