$5 Baby/Toddler Safe Nature Discovery Basket

I really wasn't quite sure what to call this. I'm labeling it Montessori even though it's not from my Montessori activity book. Based purely what I've read on Pinterest, I don't think it counts as an Invitation To Play. Maybe this is more Wardorf-y? I went to the dollar store looking for things to make a sensory box with, and this is what I walked out of the store with. I decided to start a bit smaller than a whole box.

The leaves I had a choice between individual, less realistic leaves that would be scattered all over the house, or a "vine" of more realistic leaves. I chose option number two. The flowers I squirted with a small amount of perfume. When Lady Bug saw them she started excitedly signing "flower" over and over. I thought the perfume would giver her a better idea of why the sign for flower includes sniffing. The....hay like stuff (can't remember the official name for it) I purchased with full knowledge that it would be pulled apart and scattered all over. I thought it would be a fun sensory experience. I did not anticipate how fast that would happen, and how quickly it would disintegrate all over my house. All those four things, the basket, the hay-like filler, the leaves, and the flowers I found in the house decoration section of the dollar store.

I found the explorer/grip strengthener/"Clothespin Chopsticks" in the kitchen section and bought one for each kid. I thought it would be fun for Lady Bug to pick at the hay with them, but she made the hay disappear several days before she mastered the chopsticks.

The toy fruits I pulled from our play kitchen. My intention when I made my purchases was to only buy things I was comfortable with her putting in her mouth. I looked at several decorative squashes and apples that did not met that criteria. Eventually I realized I already had what I needed to finish off the basket at home.

My main intention was to put together something that involved lots of different textures, colors, and some new experience with a fall theme that she would enjoy playing and exploring with. I think I succeeded.