Why these are perfect for play and not just for young babies
A treasure basket is a set of objects promoting open-ended play and sensory development.
Imagine yourself in a place that you have never been to before, you are presented with a basket of items and you have no idea what they are or what to do with them.
So what do you do?
You pick them up and move them between your hands, you run your fingers over the details that you notice, you may use other senses to smell or taste the object.
You then attempt to fit this item into what your past experiences have previously shown, and you may also look around to see what others are doing.
You are exploring and creating conclusions on how you are going to use this item, you may have a problem you need solving and this item would be perfect.
What if the person who uses this item for its prepositioned purpose corrects you and tells you what it is really for.
Would you continue to use it for what you need it to do or would you then bank this new knowledge and now use it for its intended purpose?
This is how we learn and how children explore the world around them, building on their knowledge and understanding with connections being formed in the brain.
Older children will start to use their imagination when exploring the items in a treasure basket, you could present a basket full of 90's technology and see what they think!
Even as adults we love being given a selection of items to try out, think about how the popular beauty boxes in M&S are.
You can enhance play by rotating items or adding additional resources.
They can be themed and focused on your little ones interests or they can be completely random.
Take a basket, bowl or tray and find 5 items and place them in front of your little one and see how they explore.
We have just launched our own treasure basket sets in our Playhub shop, curated into themes including black & white and silver.
Follow us on our social media pages for more on treasure basket play or ask us when you are next at the Playhub.
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