The Learning Basket
For training parents to educate their preschoolers
The Learning Basket® enables parents and caregivers to nurture learning with infants and toddlers through play. This Training Brochure gives some information on the program design . Dr. K. Elise Packard, who led an international team to develop the program, has written about the effects of the Learning Basket approach in her dissertation, Project Demonstrating Excellence. Dr. P. Helen Heal, evaluation consultant, wrote A Summary Review of Learning Basket Program 1997-2005 and Learning Basket in Mexico 2002-2005.
In February 2022 practitioners of the Learning Basket program and its modifications made three presentations regarding the program uniqueness, and its modifications and delivery in Guatemala, India and in Southwest United States. In the first session Elise Packard, shared the background values and how Imaginal Education was embedded in the program design. The second session, Bhimrao Tupe led a team from India to describe working collaboratively with agencies to reach over 32,000 adults and 22,000 children. In the third presentation Angelica Rodriguez and Lirio Matus described the impact of the program on immigrant families in Phoenix and in border communities; and Joaquina Rodriguez described the program delivery in Guatemala with university students and the program impact with indigenous communities and in vulnerable urban neighborhoods.
THE DNA OF
THE LEARNING BASKET PROGRAM
K. Elise Packard
INDIA
Bhimrao Tupe
Mary D’Souza
SOUTHWEST USA & GUATEMALA
Angelica Rodriguez
Joaquina Rodriguez
In India, The Aditi Learning Centre in Pune, reaches out to rural young women, providing them with a safe and caring environment in which to complete their high-school education. The Potali program of the Aditi Learning Centre and an 2022 update – helps parents of children aged 0 to 3 years. More than one thousand families have taken part since the program began in 2012. Eight two-member teams of practitioners work with 14 to 20 families for three months, exposing them to twelve distinct aspects of child care. The program’s impact is seen in the children’s improved diet, in family paradigms that now value the girl child, in helping parents stop physical disciplining of children, and in parents singing songs and reading stories with their children and allowing children to play with other children in the neighborhood. Bhimrao Tupe shares his learning on this program in his Masters Thesis “A Study of Parenting Education“ (2020).
A network of 17 ”books-in-a-box” library. Using the network of eight Potali staff, six Aditi teachers and three students in Pune, India, one thousand books for children and parents have been curated and distributed to 17 locations. While the program only began in February 2018, early reports indicate that children and parents are enthusiastic about the opportunity to read. The system for stocking and exchanging the books is simple: take a few books and exchange them whenever they wish.
Joaquina Rodriguez reported on the Learning Basket in Guatemala in the October 2018 Wind and Waves: “Social Dramas, Enchiladas, Toys and gardens: The Learning Basket Program Supports Rural Guatemalan Parents”.