We do, big time!
One of our favourite collections at the moment, something we all seem to be interested in, is Ed's rock collection.
His interest in rocks began at a very young age when he would seek them out and try to eat them. Needless to say, I wasn't encouraging this interest too much when he was sampling the objects of his interest, but as soon as he stopped putting them into his mouth and started to admire their colours, sizes and textures, I started to help him look for his little 'treasures' at every opportunity.
To encourage his interest along, I bought him a special little rock box to keep his rocks in. As you can see from the photo, he has outgrown it and next time we're out, we need to find a new box to keep them in.
Collections like this are great because
1. When you're collecting items from nature, they're absolutely free
2. It gives us something to bond over. We find them together and talk about them and it's nice.
3. It encourages him to notice what's around him and helps him to appreciate nature
4. He loves to look through his rocks, remembering where he got them from (great for his recall and language skills)
5. He likes to sort through them and group them according to size, shape and colour (and sorting and classifying are great pre-numeracy skills)
6. They always get included in his play (building on imagination and creativity)
What do you like to collect at your house?
It's leaf collections for us! We're all about the leaves...
ReplyDeleteRocks are pretty big in our world too. This also brings back memories of my Nana's button box. Everytime I'd visit I'd have it out, sorting, making lines, patterns etc. Collections are great!
ReplyDeleteWe love leaves too Cath, ever since our leaf hunt at the start of Autumn. Ed was desperate to find a purple leaf (after hearing that they could turn purple on 'Charlie and Lola'!) and we managed to track one down the other day.
ReplyDeleteJenny, my Nanna had a button box too and we loved it. I've been putting together my own collection but it's been taking ages to build up. I really must put more effort into it.
Rocks are a favourite at our house, as well as shells, acorns, feathers and nicely coloured leaves. We have a plastic box from the hardware store to store them - it has separate compartments for all the various collectables and takes pride of place on my son's bedside table!
ReplyDeleteTina
Tina - I have one of those boxes for my earrings! Now that Ed has outgrown his old Rock Box, I might invest in one of those compartmented boxes for him - what a great idea. Thanks
ReplyDelete