Treasure basket / Korpa sa dragocenostima

In her book How to Raise An Amazing Child The Montessori Way, Tim Seldin writes about very stimulating baby “toys” – treasure baskets. Even though they are not originally a part of Montessori materials, as they belong to heuristic (investigating) toys, they are used in Montessori educational process. The term “heuristic” means discovering properties of various objects.Treasure basket is a shallow wicker basket filled with a number of common household objects and those from the surrounding nature, for babies age 6 to 18 months. 

U svojoj knjizi How to Raise An Amazing Child The Montessori Way, Tim Seldin piše o vrlo podsticajnim "igračkama" za bebe: korpama sa dragocenostima. Iako ne spadaju u originalne Montesori materijale već u heurističke (otkrivačke) igračke, koriste se i u montesori pedagogiji. Sam naziv "heuristička" igra u svojoj suštini znači: otkrivanje karakteristika različitih predmeta.

Korpa sa dragocenostima je niska pletena korpa napunjena svakodnevnim predmetima iz kuće i prirode namenjena bebama od 6-18 meseci. 

These objects must be in every way safe for the baby: big enough not to be swallowed, without sharp edges that could cause injuries, without toxic or harmful colors or paints, as babies explore everything with their mouths. 

In order for the basket to be interesting and stimulating for the baby, and to provide longer periods of study, it should contain various objects that stimulate a number of senses: touch, sight, hearing, smell. They should be of various shapes, sizes, weights, textures, scents, colors. Up to the age of 12 months babies discover and learn about their environment by their senses and motor activities – mainly with their hands and mouths. A treasure basket offers a wide mental stimulus, which is of utmost importance at an early age.

Predmeti u korpi treba da budu bezbedni za bebu u svakom smislu: dovoljno veliki da beba ne može da ih proguta, bez oštrih ivica da se beba ne bi povredila, bez otrovnih boja i lakova, s obzirom da bebe sve ispituju i svojim ustima.

Da bi korpa bila što zanimljivija i podsticajnija za bebu i da bi joj omogućila duge periode istraživanja treba da sadrži što više predmeta koji stimulišu različita čula: dodir, vid, miris, sluh. Predmeti treba da budu različitih oblika, veličina, težine, teksture, mirisa, boje. Bebe do godinu dana otkrivaju i uče o svetu koji ih okružuje putem čula i putem motornih aktivnosti i to uglavnom rukama i ustima. Korpa sa dragocenostima pruža bebama obilje mentalne stimulacije koja je jako važna u prvim godinama života.

I made a treasure basket for baby Z, containing some wooden objects, objects from nature (shells, pebbles, pine cones), metal objects (mainly kitchen utensils), soft objects (raw wool,  pieces of cloth of different textures, soft and hard brushes). In principle, plastic and electronic objects should be avoided as they are no stimulus for babies’ senses.  

Napravila sam bebi Z jednu ovakvu korpu i u nju stavila drvene predmete, prirodne (školjke, šišarke, kamenčiće), metalne (uglavnom predmete iz kuhinje), mekane (nepredena vuna, tkanine različitih tekstura, četke različite mekoće)...      U principu treba izbegavati plastične i elektornske predmete, zato što su nestimulativni za bebina čula.

Baby Z adores her treasure basket. She can play with it for long periods of  time.

I try to just watch her play, without disturbing her. When I see that she has had enough, and that  she does not find the basket interesting any more (after several days, or even weeks, since  I only give her the basket once in a while), I replace the objects in the basket with new ones.

Beba Z obožava svoju korpu. U stanju je da se zaista dugo igra.

Trudim se da samo posmatram njenu igru i da je ne ometam. Kada primetim da se zasitila, i da joj korpa nije više intresantna (nakon nekoliko dana ili čak nedelja, s obzirom da joj samo povremeno dajem ovu korpu), menjam predmete i stavljam nove u nju.