Items to put in 'Treasure Box'?

[CastsSpellsWitchySpells]

Following on from Franny's suggestion on another thread of putting together a treasure box for babies, I thought we could use the MN collective to come up with ideas of what to put in one - we need around 100 items in all.

So, apart from the specific ideas already suggested on the linked site, what ideas do you have, or have you used if you've already made one?

BabyDragon's only has about 5 items in it: 2 polished black pebbles (2 because she likes banging them together), a chunk of loofah, bath mit, flannel, one of those scrunchy things you shower with, a large wicker woven ball and a smaller one of something like flat straw. I like adding to it as I go along or spot something. Despite breaking hte "no toy" rule, it also has a green plastic toy crab in it because she likes it!

She likes emptying it on the floor in around 10 seconds and then ignoring it completely in favour of the fake cole in the fireplace.

a loofah, good idea.

favourtie three items in ours are
metal seive
wooden spoon
thick cardboard tube.

They get used the most by DS 3 and dd 10mths

Oh sorry Missy, when I asked in my store they said I would have to ring head office - I did, and it worked, but I do remember the first person I spoke to there had not a clue what I was on about. This would have been about 18 months ago I think.

Info from my handout on the basket:

"Start with a sturdy, flat bottomed basket. Prof. Goldschmied recommends that the basket be no less than 14 inches across and 4 to 5 inches high. Ideally the basket will be round but I personally have found it hard to obtain reasonably priced round baskets, and it can also be difficult to find baskets this shallow. As with the materials it contains, the basket itself should be made of a natural material, rather than plastic."

The best ones I have found are shallow rectangular ones made of (I think) seagrass. They are very sturdy, nice and low so even small ones can reach in, and smell very interesting in themselves. Any old basket should do but obviously if you think it is made of something too pointy then choose something else. Don't forget you will be supervising at all times though, so there is not much damage a baby can do to themselves with a basket, hopefully...

The favourite items in mine are probably the egg whisks. I have several different sizes and they are always a hit. Lemons and limes are very popular as well.

If anyone has that copy of Junior that Swedishmum mentions I would love to buy it from you or just borrow it. The back copies are out of stock and I have been wanting to read it for ages.

oh no worries f&z, i will pop into store next time i'm passing by.

been thinking of all the useful bits for newfound treasure chest that i could have used but have thrown/charitied in recent months...

my ds (15 months) has what we call 'discovery bags' (as against treasure baskets) in several rooms in the house and they certainly keep him entertained!

One of his favoured items at the moment is a large ladle! He loves it and I am encouraging him to try and put a ball in there, move it around without dropping the ball.

So if you have an old ladle lying in that kitchen draw put it to good use!

they do flatish round baskets in ikea, like a big bowl really. they are sort of woven seagrass.

i work at a nursery and the babies love treasure baskets they also like sensory bottles which are empty plastic bottles filled with things like pasta, washing up liquid, rice , water and food colouring we have about 20 altogether and the kids love them even the older children like helping us make them m just make sure you put some strong tape around the lids so they cant get the lids off.A cheap and brill idea for younger ones

I'm bumping this because it's such a fab idea and I'm sure that not everyone will have seen it yet.

I think what I like abuot them is the fun I have spotting things I think BabyDragon will like. Tescos had the loofah/bath mitt/scrunchie kits on sale for £1 last week and I was delighted

I'm just delighted that I now have a use for the castinets that my brother brought me back from majorca a couple of years ago. Now they have a use instead of just being cheap tourist tat!

I bought the tesco sponge/brush kit, and a wooden hairbrush set for £1 each when I was still pregnant last year for this after reading an older thread on the same thing.
I still haven't got a basket yet though.

I made a treasure basket for my ds yesterday after reading this thread. It is a big hit - only have about ten items so far but the most popular is a strip of velcro that I had left over from making a blind - the soft half that is designed to be sewn onto fabric. I know it is mainly plastic but it is interesting plastic. I think a ping pong ball/squash ball would be good too. Sadly my squash playing days were over so long ago that I no longer have one.

Oh, and metal measuring spoons. I'm going to look for a wooden pastry brush too. It's such fun thinking of things isn't it? I also thought I could ask family members to add something for Christmas.

Ooh mrsmerdle - now you've made me want a shuttlecock!

how about a pastry cutter? one of those wooden wheely things on a stick. that would be good.

Message withdrawn

I used a wicker cat basket. Favourite items - measuring spoons, two sets one metal one plastic for contrast. A brilliant builder's glove. It was huge and orange and had a fascinating non slip pattern on the palm ~(not very aesthetic, though!) A small bottle full of water and a good big spoonful of glitter. a legnth of quite heavy chain. A pine cone.
A peice of wood with different sized holes drilled in it (a leftover from a craft project) Some wooden clothes pegs. A potato masher.
The market is a good place to look, especially the hardware stall!

FaZ: I thought of you today. In M&S they had a chamois leather thingy... but it was made of hundreds of offcuts threaded together and then joined end to end in a circle IYSWIM. £3.50

(imagine squarish offcuts about 2 inches by 2inches ish.

Oh hub it sounds superb

£3.50 out of my price bracket for treasure basket items though, at last count I had over 700 objects so they need to be inexpensive

I thought of another huge hit - strings of beads - make sure they are very tightly secured to the thread or elastic, and do not have a coating that can be chewed off. I found the long strings of pearly 'bead' type things they sell in a roll near Christmas were great if you cut them down to shorter lengths.

FaZ - you know the marketing standard spiel: one low priced offering, one mid / 'normal' priced offering and one deluxe high-end offering. The high-end offering has M&S chamois and natural pearls with exceptional nacre and roundedness.

nacre... brilliant. not a word you hear enough, that.

I don't know....I'm usually feeling pretty nacred

curlew, did you remove the cat from the basket first?

i found something lovely but not finished treasure basket yet so not tried and tested on DD.in Asda was buying her a wooden eggcup for basket and also bought metal spaghetti server = like a large flat measure with different shaped holes in.think was about 1.50.