At "Sprouting Kids", Play is one of the main ways in which children learn. It helps to build self worth by giving a child a sense of his or her own abilities and to feel good about themselves. Because it's fun, children often become very absorbed in what they are doing. In turn, this helps them develop the ability to concentrate. Providing children with a range of playthings like:

• Sand and water play are an early introduction to science and maths, eg learning that water is fluid, not solid, and that it can be measured in different sized containers.
• Playing with dough, drawing and painting pictures, dressing up, playing with dolls encourage creativity, imagination and expression of feelings.
• Building blocks, jigsaws and shape sorters can help with recognising different shapes and sizes, putting things in order and developing logic.
• Playing ball games, dancing, running, climbing all help to develop body movement, strength, flexibility and co-ordination skills.
• Games help with turn taking, sharing and mixing with others.
• Singing, playing simple music instruments help to develop rhythm, listening and hearing.

It's important that learning is fun at this age. It needs to be about doing things with them that they like. They might find unusual ways of doing things – for a nursery student, building blocks aren't just for making towers, and paint can be used without a brush! Showing them how things work, and letting them to experiment helps in learning.

Children develop in their own ways and in their own time. They are also encouraged to read, by reading to and with them. Looking at the pictures together; this helps younger children make sense of the words.

It also helps to talk to them a lot, about everyday things. This gives you a chance to teach them how things work and they will be able to ask us questions. Specially the question "why?"