Whenever we bring out a new publication or training resource, we put a lot of care into the photos. A picture really is worth a thousand words. So when I was working on I made a unicorn and its accompanying PowerPoint, I asked our photographer Tricia to visit the nursery next door and see what she could capture. All the children there know Tricia and accept her presence without question. She’s good with the camera and the kids often don’t even realise she is photographing them. However, in this instance, Wanjin saw her focussing on his construction and exclaimed, “Oh! You like my jeep? I’ll show you my forklift! And my racing car! And my aeroplane!”

I love the way children’s personalities and fascinations are reflected in their play. I’ve known Wanjin all his life, and even as a baby he would make vehicle noises! As a three-year-old, he and his best friend Tommy were constructing tractors from hollow blocks. Here you see what he was doing at five. Anyone want to hazard a guess at what he’ll be doing as a teenager?

Everyone understands that automobile design is a complex process with teams working for years to perfect each part. However I often get raised eyebrows when I tell people that it took three people two months to design our Pushcart. After all, it’s got four wheels and a handle. A week to design they would guess. Why two months?

Early years catalogues are full of little pink prams, plastic wheelbarrows, baby walkers and wagons. Each serves a specific function and not much else. Our challenge was to create one piece of equipment that would serve children from one-year-olds taking their first steps to rambunctious three-year-olds moving a pile of blocks from the construction corner to the role play area.

I will only touch on one aspect of the design.The Pushcart does not have swivelling castors at the front to make it easy to steer like a shopping cart. That might work for a two- or three-year-old, but when a one-year-old wants to use the Pushcart she crawls over and pulls herself up on the sides of the cart. Then her hands ‘walk’ up the handle. If there were castors on the front, the Pushcart would swivel sideways and the child would end up face-down on the floor. On the other hand, an older child needs to steer the cart. The team used anthropometric charts and observed children to figure out the balance of height and weight so that an older child could press down on the handle to steer it while the beginning walker would not tip it. The final Pushcart design looks simple, but there's much more to it than meets the eye.

6 January is traditionally 'Three Kings Day' for many cultures. This year it came last Friday, and as I walked past our local nursery that morning, here's what I saw: The children had spontaneously built camels, which they mounted and rode (don't be scared – none of them fell off) singing 'We three kings of Orient are' at top volume! You can see how engrossed they were. I love how they use the hollow blocks for whatever they need at the moment – and they never run out of ideas.

We asked Siren Films to spend a week in Pen Green's Baby and Toddler Nest to film activity on and around our new Nursery Gym. It's exciting to observe young children benefiting from the new gym. Enjoy young adventurers using the gym's ramp, slide, steps, tunnel and bridge. Watch them experiment with cause-and-effect, action and sound – and then see them snuggle into its cosy hidey-holes. Supporting healthy physical development is the primary function of the gym, but children's spontaneous social interactions and their trial-and-error problem solving show how this equipment serves all areas of learning. With an introduction by Dr Margy Whalley and sensitive narration throughout, this 20-minute DVD can stimulate discussion about the importance of physical activity and positive risk for young children.

For your FREE copy of the DVD, email us with your current mailing address or phone 0800 387 457.

Young children learn through movement and play. Action is essential for their healthy development. The Nursery gym provides up-and-down and over-and-under activity as well as varied tactile experience.

Crossing an arched bridge is a challenge which young children repeat over and over. Once they have mastered that, there's a new challenge to discover.

Outdoor activity helps children keep a positive outlook. There is no aspect of the national curriculum that cannot be taught outdoors at the Key Stage 1 level. This approach is shared by Coombes Primary School where they state, ‘We continue to develop our outdoor environment as our largest classroom.’

Froebel maintained that the capacity to struggle persistently lies at the foundation of character; children love to encounter challenge in play and work. Outdoor involvement provides such challenge.

Children develop their vestibular sense (balance) through teetering, tipping, spinning, swinging, rocking, jumping, bouncing, sliding and fast forward motion. They have a biological drive for such experiences and use any opportunity to run, slide down banisters, roll down hills, hop from place to place. In order to develop perfect coordination of body and brain, children need action in which their muscles encounter resistance: pushing, pulling, stretching, carrying. They like to hang from bars, to dig and rake, to feel tension in their limbs. Skipping rope, climbing trees, pedalling bicycles and pushing wheelbarrows are actions that fill this need and only happen outdoors. Significantly, movement is actually what allows children to sit still.

From Lighting the fire – a free booklet on outdoor play and hands-on learning.