Nursery World - Brake time

Does every early years setting have to provide bikes in the outdoor area? Helen Bilton has a rethink about what is being achieved with some of the most common play resources we stock for young children Let me paint a picture for you. Some boys are desperate to go outside.

Let me paint a picture for you. Some boys are desperate to go outside.

Playtime is announced. The temperature is minus ten outside, but these children forgo the warmth of a coat, and in their wake younger children are left in a heap on the ground. Once outside, there is a race to see who can get a bike first.

But the children are not content with any old bike; there is a pecking order to them. There will be a bike that is the best - let's call it the red bike. There will be another bike that isn't quite as good - let's call it the orange bike. And then there is the green bike - this is the worst bike and you are considered strange if you go on it. So the race is on for the best bikes.

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