A Nursery child draws an elephant with wonderful succinctness. A simple expressive line and perfectly judged areas of tone capture the imagination: “I’ve drawn it for you…It’s sitting down and feeling sad because it’s the last day of school…and his trunk is crumpled up” Utter Joy!

That wonderful moment when a young child gives you a drawing and you realise they’ve handed you a window into their world of development - a synchronous exploration of motor control, marks, linear expression, writing, shape and space. Each nourishing the other. Joy!

What do you give to life, when life has it all? The effort of being original, is like a thank you. Wayne Shorter.

Nursery child invites us into some thinking on shape and space: “I’ve made a face do you want to see? You turn the circle and the mouth can be happy or sad… But I can’t decide if square eyes are happier than triangle eyes!” We look, wonder and I see what he means. Joy!

“I’ve drawn the Taj Mahal by a beautiful rainbow river” ‘They’re so beautiful’ I respond “Do you know what the numbers are?” the child asks “The doors?” “No…they are the way I drew them, I started with 1, I did 2, and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and then I glued them on the river”

“Those who desire to sing… find a song.” Plato. So much of teaching is finding your own voice: a voice that inspires learners to discover theirs, and sing boldly themselves. When I find my song, I’ll sing it with all my heart.

Nursery child simultaneously unpacks his thinking about number & the Montessori number bead box: “The 5’s go 5, 10, 15 4’s go 4, 8, 12 3’s go 3, 6, 9 I haven’t done 6’s but I think they go 6, 12: I’ve been thinking about it, and I haven’t thought about the 9’s yet” Joy!

A question that shadows every lesson: At what point does my hand, meant to lift, hold pupils back?

I love it when the Independent learners turn me into a waiter ...you know: ‘Are you enjoying your learning?’ ‘Yes!’ ‘Can I get you anything?’

A nursery child explores the Montessori Shape Boxes. She intuitively engages with the properties of congruence, shape, colour, and magnitude, using them to create imaginative and varied designs: “I’ve made a rocket, and there are lots of stars around — every star is going to be different!” Joy!

Play is a spark, if you let it out of the box it ignites ideas. New thoughts arrive like unexpected guests. Play wanders about our heads in ways we can’t predict and in places we forget to look. Imagination is refreshed. Best of all, it discovers things we could never dream alone.

Nursery child plays on the “Number Ten Study Rug” with Numicon “You can make 10 with 5 and 5 and that’s fair but you can’t make ten with 6 and 6 “ “You can’t make ten with 7 and 7.” He laughs. “You’d have to squash a 7 down into 2 and 1 which isn’t fair … Or three!” Joy.

I see Play’s magnificent fusion of thoughts, actions and discovery as a form of thinking in itself. A primal language simultaneously abstract and concrete, relishing the unexpected, loved by mind, heart and body, and birthplace to innovation.

Picasso transformed a bicycle seat and handle bars into a Bulls Head. It’s been said a child could have done it. I wonder, isn’t the point the other way round? We adults DON’T do it, anymore. Do we wish our children trade in these transformative powers for ‘adulthood’?

Nursery child: “I’m cutting out paper ‘spaces’ & putting them in a study box” Spaces? “Spaces are things in-between words, if you don’t have them the words get jumbled up” Oh? “Word spaces are real and not real, I’m making real ones for everyone to use between words”

Since my pupils are the main stakeholders in their learning, why plan it without them? And, if I want them to drive their own learning, the sooner they’re in the driver’s seat, the more prepared they’ll be when the road is theirs to travel alone.

There are so many reasons why ‘finding time for focussed play’ is a problem worth solving…

A Nursery child picks fresh leaves & daisies and lays them out with careful attention to position and 1-1 correspondence. She adjusts any spacial and numerical errors as she goes: “Squirrel is making a picnic, all his friends get one daisy each so they don’t squabble!” Joy!

The idea, attributed to Marcus Aurelius, that ‘the soul is dyed by the colour of our thoughts’ seems, to me, very powerful. We become ‘what’ and ‘the way’ we think. As a teacher it really hits home when I see 35 young minds awaiting the influence of my thinking…

A Nursery Child draws hearts, counting them as she goes: “There are 34 children in circle time and I’ve drawn all their hearts. I’ve got a heart too, so I’m drawing my heart as well” ‘One for each child’ I respond. “Yes” she responds “Everyone has one heart, we have to look after them!” Joy!

A Nursery child develops her skills in employing expressive line to capture our goats in the nursery garden. The goats potter about. “The ears drop down, the horns stick up” She observes, hugs and feeds them between strokes of the brush. “I want to make another drawing, and another, and another’

I want to slow the curriculum down so learning can breath, experiences can be savoured, thoughts turned over, ideas become realities. Why put my foot on the gas? Better to immerse ourselves in the broader landscape, enjoy the company, take the journey well, arrive richer.

EYFS child describes the creative process: “I made the stars by rotating triangles” “I like drawing inside shapes to make them all different. I love decorating the perimeter. It makes them like flowers. Flowers are shapes with petals!” Acrylic, collage, Pen on canvas.

“The best place to learn to drive is the driving seat.” my driving instructor told me, as I got behind the wheel. “The vehicle’s twin controlled.” It triggers the thought: What about a duel controlled pedagogy where we put our children safely in Learnings driving seat…

Nursery Child painting: “It’s a Rainbow Flower. You need a rainbow seed to grow it, just like any kind of tomato seed makes a tomato plant’’ Me: “An apple seed won’t do then?” Child: “No” Me: “Or an orange seed?” Child: “That’s it, you’re getting into this…I think you understand”

If I want to see the brilliance of a child’s thinking, it helps to turn the lights down on my own.

A Nursery child picks up a pen and captures: ratio, texture, shape, perspective, positive & negative space, direction, form, horizontal, vertical, parallel lines. What do we see? An Aloe Vera.

Epictetus pointed out that nature provided us with two ears and one tongue. It’s such great balance, especially if you’re a teacher. So, why is it, when I’m teaching, I frequently end up with five tongues and one ear?

Sometimes, with the of best intentions I oversimplify learning to the point where I rob the children, of experience in untangling it for themselves.

Crispin the crow, our nursery puppet, lays 3 eggs, ready to hatch in 18 days. A child makes a calendar ‘with numbers to cross off’ whilst he waits: “I think 18 is 8 and 1” “18 is smaller than 80 ‘cus it’s on the way to 20 which is ‘ten ten’” “10 is on the way to 80 but it’s a long way to wait”

Nursery child excitedly comes in from the garden. He finds an adult. Child: “Look what I’ve found, I’ve found a ladybug.” Adult: “Ooh, how many spots does it have?” Child: “All of them!”

A nursery child independently explores cardinality and plays with variation in its expression. He unpacks a ‘Numerals Study Box’ sorting coloured Number Rods, Numicon, Cubes and Numerals. “Look at my number study” “I made four cubes, four holes and four stripes…and I’M FOUR!” Joy!

A Subitizing Study Box made from: an old broken box, fixed and hinged, 30 painted wooden squares from the hardware store, paint, dots and varnish. Nursery child plays repeatedly with the box & observes: ‘Numbers have got numbers inside - like bones! I can see numbers in my head and in my eyes’

Nursery child explores mark making in pen and printmaking with the photocopier. With support she collages her work onto canvas. The results provoke repainting and renewed mark making until a design conclusion is found. She signs her work. Joy! (Paint, pen, collage on canvas)

“Why did the Hungry Caterpillar make a cocoon?” #EYFS child: “So no one bothers him.” “Sorry?” I ask. EYFS child: “He needs time to THINK himself INTO a butterfly.” “Wow!” I respond. EYFS child: “Well, he didn’t do it by magic.”

Nursery Child comes in from the garden: “A leaf has fallen off a tree but, that’s all right, we can fix it onto another tree. One without a leaf” Me: “Oh?” Child: “Another tree will look after it & the leaf will grow” Me: “On a new tree!” Child: “That’s how they grow so big…they help each other”

Nursery child creates a beautifully executed & concise line drawing. He pauses, sits back, and scratches his head. I ask “What are you thinking about?” Child “What it’s like to be a snail with wings” Joy!

A helicopter hovers overhead, then flies off: “Where’s it gone?” I ask my 2 year old “It’s gone to see its mummy for some milk” I glimpse her minds eye. Note to self: Fully appreciate children’s thinking before bulldozing it with my own.

The wonderful moment when a Nursery Child’s mark making breaks through into a new world of figuration. Lines enclose spaces and the creative play captures a newly found anatomy of motifs, shape, letters, forms and figures. Visual joy! Paint, Pen, Collage and Paper on Canvas.

I ask a child: “How could we explore measure?” A moments silence. Child: “We could find out how far we can draw a line with a piece of chalk until it’s too small to hold.” He follows the plan Genius.

A car hubcap, wooden lines, arrows, crosses, & shapes become an Nursery child’s materials for play. And Citroen’s design inspires an exploration of: rotation, angle, shape, number, & magnitude. Drawing = Maths = Joy

Nursery child looks up from his model making: “What holds the world together?” “Scientists ask this” I respond “they don’t fully understand” He looks around: “String, tape, glue? But trees would fall over” Looks back at his model: “It has to be really strong or (the world would) fall apart!”

Nursery child: “This is Mr Crab and he’s reading the newspapers… I’m making them for him and giving them to him” Me “I wonder what he’s reading about” “It’s his birthday & the newspapers say:‘Everyone gets to have cookies.’ ” “Great news” I respond. Child “That’s what he wanted!!!” Joy.

“The word 'JAZZ' means to me, I DARE you! Let's jump into the unknown!” (Wayne Shorter) PLAY to me, is an invitation, to launch myself in the same direction, and, if I dare, take my TEACHING with me.

Nursery child: “I’m doing a drawing about the letter M…It’s like a castle and it’s got doorways…and mountains and places where people can go…” “M has such a great shape” I reply Child “It’s a letter that can stand up, you can walk around it!”

I’m constantly struck by the capacity of minds, whose age can be measured in months, to learn at a speed much greater than mine, which is measured in years.

‘Learning never exhausts the mind’ (attributed to Leonardo da Vinci) But teaching sure occupies it (known by all teachers!)

Wherever you begin your journey through the mathematical landscape you’re guaranteed to bump into someone who started somewhere else.

A Nursery childs’ joyful independent play. He explores & expresses cardinality with counters, number sticks, spindles, dots, & stars. Square & Cube Numbers from 1 to 10cm are carefully investigated & ordered. He picks up a 7 stick: “If I break off 3…it’s my age!