L has been obsessed with trying to open containers for a while now.  At first, I was hesitant to put a work like this together, because there are many things I don’t want her to be able to open — for my own sanity.  But I figured that she’s old enough now to handle the contents of containers more responsibly, so it was time to put my qualms aside and follow the child.

I spent a few weeks collecting different types of containers from around the house.  Each container has a different kind of opening — velcro, snap, zipper, drawstring, tabs, etc.  I used the drawstring bag that held L’s sheets to put all the different containers in, and put it on L’s practical life shelf.  You should have seen the look on her face when she discovered it there!  She was ecstatic.  Some of the containers are more difficult to open than others, so L asks for help with those.  When she has mastered all of the containers in this drawstring bag, it will be easy to modify the work with more difficult containers — like tupperware, things with buttons, etc.  For now, this is pretty challenging for L.  She is very satisfied when she manages to get one open, and she likes putting the smaller containers inside the larger ones.  This work was absolutely free — I just used containers I already had around the house or ones that I kept after the contents were gone.  Look through your recyclables for more options!