rocks in a wooden display case

I bought this wooden display case at a city-wide garage sale (and wow does it need a dusting). 

The owner told me it came with his wife from England when she moved into the area. I wondered why she felt it was so important that she would bring it all the way across the ocean only to later sell it out of the garage, but I didn't ask. Anyway, I was in the market for such a thing, and thought it was good luck I should come across one for $2. 


At first J and I used this to sort his vintage cars from his father's old collection. This was in May, right before his 2nd birthday and he showed a brief interest in the activity.

This was about as far as he got, so I snapped a photo but I couldn't help completing the set. 
I love to organize things like this and as a child I would have spend hours rearranging some collection or another. 


Anyway, I cleaned up and tucked the wooden display case under the couch until yesterday when I wondered if J would like to sort another type of collection so I brought out my jar of black river rocks. 


This time he was eager. 

He filled up all the spaces as we talked about little, big, long & short, skinny & fat. 

When we were done we cleaned up and J enjoyed the sound the rocks made when they clattered to the bottom of the glass vase. 

Then he dumped them out so he could feel them under his feet. I love how children learn about the world with their whole bodies. 

I had pretty much chalked this activity up as being over when on a whim I set the case upright. J thought the new perspective was pretty cool and began adding rocks again (again I thought I should really dust but I didn't want to stop):

He did't last quite as long this time, but I was happy he was interested at all:

I like how he chose to pile some rocks on top of each other. It was so fun for me to watch this process!