Elinor's professional life spanned an astonishing 70 years and she was working right up to her nineties. Her life's work was devoted to understanding and improving the wellbeing of young children, in particular those under three years of age.
Elinor's broad origins were about experimentation and living in the countryside, and these contributed to the multi-faceted visionary approach to her work. She was fascinated by detail, and through keen observation and an enquiring mind sought practical ways to meet the developing needs of the very young.
When I asked Elinor what she thought was her greatest achievement, she told me without hesitation, 'The Treasure Basket'. However, she ruefully added that she was concerned that practitioners would not understand what it means. I shall attempt to give some explanation, based on the words spoken by Elinor, to clarify this increasingly familiar term in the realm of early years education and childcare. I shall also go on to outline the principles of 'Heuristic Play' that flowed out from this, when I was working with Elinor in the early 1980s.
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