The nursery and kindergarten seek to be places where children may learn through imitation and the example of their teachers, their peers and of the images given to them through stories and their environment. Rhythms of the seasons, festivals, the week and the day form a background to varied activities including creative play and structured games, stories, rhymes, songs, etc., many of which are very clearly the basis for formal academic work later on. A secure gentle environment is created with much emphasis on natural materials and wholesome ordinary activities.

We see play as the serious work of childhood during which the children exercise many practical, social and imaginative faculties, and can experiment with the world as it appears to them in physical and emotional safety. Literacy and numeracy in a more formal way begin when the children are naturally ready, at around the age of six.

In common with most enlightened education systems in Europe, especially in Scandinavia, we find that children who are given space for play and natural development, learn more quickly later on.