Sensory6–18 moAt home

Treasure basket

A basket of ordinary things, and no plastic in sight.

Prep

3 min

Mess

None

How to play

Sit him with the basket and do nothing. Don't name things, don't demonstrate. Let him choose, mouth, bang and discard at his own pace.

  1. an empty shallow basket
    1

    Find a shallow basket.

  2. a wooden spoon, a ball and a block sitting inside the basket
    2

    Fill it with safe household objects — no plastic toys.

  3. a hand lifting a stone out of the basket
    3

    Sit close and do nothing. Let each one get chosen and turned over.

What you need

A shallow basket and 8–10 safe household objects: a wooden spoon, a metal whisk, a pine cone, a scrap of velvet, a lemon.

What it secretly builds

Sensory

Real objects have weight, temperature and texture that plastic toys don't. He's building a physical map of the world through his hands and mouth.

Safety first
Everything must be too big to swallow, with no small parts, splinters or sharp edges. Sit with him the whole time.
Spin again