Unstructured play is excellent for young children’s learning and development, and a Treasure Box is a great open-ended play idea for your curious kid.    

BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE

APRIL 29, 2024

One of the best things about being a parent is that you get to dust off your inner child and engage in some good, old-fashioned play! 

There’s really no limit to the fun you can have with your under-five, and you don’t have to be a natural creative or trained educator to help your little one learn through play.  

You’ll find that they’re very capable of coming up with exciting play ideas themselves, and sometimes your job is to offer some little play cues, or just leave them to it!  

There’s definitely a place for unstructured play in your young child’s day, and you don’t always need grand plans, snazzy toys or special instructions to make things interesting.  

Simple ideas and objects can be used to great effect, and when you put a few found items into a Treasure Box, you open up a whole world of wonder.  

We’ll explain the Treasure Box idea below, but first, it’s good to know why play is so important for young children. 

Basically, play in the early years is a child’s main way of learning and developing, and it’s one of those things that ticks a lot of boxes.  

Derek McCormack, Director of the Raising Children Network explains that, “As well as promoting physical development and being fun, play helps a child’s emotional and social development, as it helps them to build confidence, understand more about how the world works and learn about caring for others and the environment.”  

It’s natural for children to go through different play stages, so your under-five might be obsessed with pretend tea parties or fully focused on their toy car collection, but as with many things, variety is the spice of life!  

Derek says, “It’s important for children to have plenty of different types of play experiences. This includes unstructured and structured play, indoor and outdoor play, solo and group play, craft and creative play, and so on.” 

With unstructured play, children are free to improvise and follow their interests without any set rules standing in their way.  

Derek explains that, “Unstructured, free play is important for young children because it lets them use their imagination and move at their own pace. When children have time and space to play without restriction, their imaginations can roam and they can explore ideas.”  

Quality early learning services allow time for unstructured play as part of the program, and at home, you can support unstructured play by giving your child some ‘me time’ each day and offering open-ended objects for them to play with.  

Simple things, like a scrap of fabric, saucepan, cardboard box, wooden spoon or bouncy ball can be used in zillions of inventive ways by your young child, and when you put a collection of objects together in a Treasure Box, there’s even more for your child to discover and explore. 

We can thank the Raising Children Network for the Treasure Box concept, and it’s really easy to put this play idea into action.  

All you need to do is find a big container, preferably with a lid that your child can open, then fill it with a variety of interesting objects for them to engage with in their own way.  

Random items from around the house and garden work well (such as a pine cone, glove, whisk, paintbrush, scrap of velvet and piece of corrugated cardboard), but it’s also fun to follow a theme. 

For example, you might choose: 

• A colour theme, where the Treasure Box contains green things 
• A shape theme, where the items are all round or square  
• A texture theme, where you choose all smooth objects, or put in a mix of smooth, rough and safely spiky (such as a pebble, cardboard tube, scourer and hairbrush) 
• A beach theme, where you put in sand, shells, driftwood and feathers 
• A seasonal theme, where you put in objects all related to autumn 
• A creature theme, where you put in things related to dogs, horses or bees, or  
• A country or culture theme, which could include objects collected in your travels 

A Treasure Box is a great idea because it's cheap, transportable and entertaining on those rainy days, with a mystique that lasts for a long time.  

Babies, toddlers and preschoolers can all enjoy a Treasure Box tailored to their age and interests, and Derek says, “For young children, a Treasure Box offers that element of surprise. It’s exciting to see what is inside, and each new collection of objects will ignite their imagination and take them into new ways of playing.” 

You can ask your child questions like, “What’s in there?” or “I wonder what you could do with that?” to get them thinking outside the square (or should we say, box?); and if your little one is loving this play activity, you can keep emptying and refilling the Treasure Box ad infinitum. 

And, of course, a Treasure Box isn’t the only easy and inexpensive play idea out there. 

There are loads of play ideas for babies, toddlers and preschoolers on the Raising Children Network website, and in these tough financial times, it’s good to know that you don’t have to spend a lot of money, or have a lot of space, to share quality play experiences with your child.  

Sometimes, the simplest ideas and objects really are the best, and you’ll find that your under-five is very happy to play their own way when given the time and freedom to do so.  

So, load up that box, or roll out that new play idea, and see what happens!