We all know how difficult is too keep a young baby quiet, especially in long rainy afternoons so common in spring. The basket of treasures is a great way for toddlers aged 6 up to 15 months, to make their first sensorial experiences. It was ideated over 30 years ago by British pedagogue Elinor Goldschmied and it is a very effective and simple game to put in place. I tested it myself with my 9-months-old: she had great time with it!
Basket of treasures is a small basket (made in natural fibres, no plastic!) approx
The basket is to be placed in front of the baby. She must then be left alone, free to explore, touch, and bite the objects. Once the exploration of an object is over, the baby will drop it and spontaneously take another from the basket. The role of the adult in this case is just as a guardian and should not interfere with the experience…and you will be surprised to see how quiet and concentrated your little one will be! The activity is - well - not exciting under an adult point of view but very stimulating for those younger than one year!
A session of this heuristic game (this is the technical name of Basket of treasures, from the Greek verb “eurisko” meaning “to discover”) can last up to 30 minutes... a long time for such a young explorer. I suggest that you try it as a cheap and easy way to challenge your baby’s senses!
The purpose of this activity is to use all the senses:
- Touching different materials, shapes and weights.
- Smelling the different material natural odours.
- Tasting ...as your little one will put everything in their mouth!
- Looking at different colours, shapes, lengths and shine of objects.
- Hearing the noises made shaking or bumping objects.
Examples of objects are (they must be as much as possible taken from daily home activities):
- Pines, sea shells, river stones, natural sponges, coconuts.
- Balls of wool or cotton, straw pads, brushes, toothbrushes, wooden combs.
- Other wooden objects such as rattlers, pegs, spoons, egg-cups.
- Metal: chains, spoons, little pans, cigar tubs, cookie shapers… Keys are not advisable as they often contain lead that can be dangerous if swallowed.
- Leather purse, rubber tube pieces, tennis balls, little fabric pillows filled with aromatic herbs…
Those are just examples, if you look around you right now you will find new ideas to fill your very own Basket of Treasures!
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