The discovery basket

The discovery basket is finally out!

(and well, yes, being chewed on...but you know...)

I LOVE the discovery basket. It is an idea that I got while reading Tim Seldin's book: How to raise an amazing child the Montessori way. I used it with Peanut, and she adores it. It was something she kept coming back to, to explore, empty, put back in...endlessly. I was looking forward to this experience again with Pumpkin, and I think it will be as enjoyable as it was the first time.

I started by putting out a couple of things in them, but after observing him, I realized that the basket by itself was more then enough to investigate. So I removed the content without him being aware, and he explored the basket (yes, with ALL his senses!) for a rather long period of time.

When I gave it to him, I named it, "discovery basket", and then while he was exploring, I remained silent. When his really started to work on a specific area, I named it: "handle"

The basket will remain in his room, at the same spot, with the same material in it for a couple of week at a time. I read somewhere how it is a good idea to put object that are somewhat linked together, like things from the kitchen, the bathroom, all sorts of container etc...

Where to find info on the discovery basket:

• Tim Seldin's book How to raise an amazing child the Montessori way
• if you know of any other good ressources or ideas about the basket, please leave them in the comments, I'll add to the post!