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You
are here: The Learning Basket
by Keith Packard The Learning Basket is a practical program for stimulating the growth of intelligence for young children. It was developed to provide parents and caregivers of children from birth through three years old with a simple, practical way to stimulate learning through play. Based on the understanding that many parents do not have the opportunity or are not able to read complex research documents and popular literature and teaching curricula, the materials are designed to stimulate literacy in the parents' native language while teaching essential information about child development and early learning. The materials have been developed by The Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) and Laubach Literacy in consultation with the College of Family Life of Utah State University.
The Learning Basket has been developed as a practical tool to enable parents and caregivers to stimulate learning with infants and toddlers through play. The basket contains eighteen categories of objects that can be used in developmentally appropriate play activities. The objects are handmade or easily purchased at modest prices. All objects have been selected because they are safe, can be easily obtained at relatively low cost, and can be packed away in a basket or simple container easily accessible to parents and caregivers.
Items in the basket include handmade diversity dolls and colored crocheted balls and purchased items such as a magnifying glass and measuring cups. All of these are made or supplied to the project and participating programs by volunteers. The making of the basket provides a practical means by which community resources are linked to community needs.
Resources available are a Learning Basket Pattern Book, a Play to Learn Activity Book (available in Spanish, English, and Haitian Creole), and a Parents Are Teachers manual used for generating discussions among parents in a group setting. The manual is designed so that parents and caregivers can guide the conversations that are focused on sixteen themes involved in parenting and child development. The manual provides a practical means of developing leadership skills as well as enhancing literacy. Training programs are also available.
This approach has been successfully piloted with parents, caregivers, and family support staff in a Migrant Head Start program in Utah. In addition, the approach has been used in a Healthy Families of America program with urban parents in Chicago and El Paso, Texas; with a Head Start Parents' program in Chicago; and with parents in rural and urban settings in Paraguay and Haiti.
For further information visit the Learning Basket website at www.learningbasket.org or contact Keith Packard, ICA Chicago, at 773-769-6363 Ext. 291 or email to icachicago@igc.org.
Copyright © July 2000 New Horizons for Learning, all rights reserved.
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