Hi TheodoresMummy, I got here in the end. A lovely friend of mine has a son called Theodore so I always think of her when I see your name
I have been thinking about what heuristic play means, for older children, a lot this month and I am still trying to work it out myself. Here are some ideas that I hope might help (I see a lot of them are already on this thread - some great ideas - but I'm going to recap anyway so I can refer back to this if I want to).
First of all here is the section on older children and heuristic play from my ideas document:
"Large collections of natural and household objects are used, for instance, 100 curtain rings, 20 cardboard tubes, 10 mug trees. The children interact with the materials in whatever ways they choose, learning about cause and effect as they roll, stack, fill, sort and transport the objects. Because a large number of each object is provided, sharing issues are avoided and even a group of possessive toddlers can play side by side with little or no conflict. Elinor Goldschmied recommends this type of play for those up to 2 years old, but I have found that it intrigues children up to the age of 3 and beyond (although banging the materials and running about with them does tend to replace some of the more thoughtful endeavour at this age).
The materials are stored in drawstring bags, and tidying up at the end of the session can form an agreeable part of the activity. This sort of play takes dedication to recreate at home, but is strangely addictive once you begin collecting, and is a marvellous distraction for either individuals or groups of children on rainy days. Suggested items include:
Jar lids Bunches of keys
Wooden pegs Drinking straws
Curtain rings Seashells
Ribbons Ping pong balls.
You will need ideally at least 50 of each item plus at least 10 each of your choice of the following containers:
Large tins Straw baskets
Cardboard tubes Mug trees and kitchen roll holders
Wooden or bamboo bowls Wooden or cardboard boxes.
Choose an appealing combination of objects for each session. Balls and tubes are always a popular combo, as are curtain rings or bracelets and mug trees. You will no doubt devise your own favourites."
You could extend this list by adding more natural objects: collections of pine cones, pebbles, sticks, and feathers, leaves, etc. If you have access to a garden, park, field or beach where you can allow him to play with water, mud, sand, sticks, grass, leaves and twigs etc in the way he wants to then that is a fantastic source of exploratory play. We recently realised our garden was dull and had no places where ds could just muck about and make a mess. We've altered it a lot, and decided that a messy garden is a small price to play for a lot of peace, while ds mixes sand with mud and water, digs in the earth, sprinkles sand on the patio, makes patterns with stones and sticks and so on. I highly recommend allowing lots of free play in the garden and free access to natural materials without worrying about keeping things tidy.
Other sensory exploratory materials that are fun, are cooked spaghetti, jelly, oats, shredded paper, rice, etc. If you have a sand pit on legs you can change the sand for some of these materials from time to time. Some containers and spoons help them play for longer, but do encourage play with hands as well. Younger toddlers especially like this although of course it all goes in the mouth.
More in a minute, this post is getting too long