At Cambusbarron Village Nursery, there are no walls around imagination — it grows wild in the woods.
This week, I watched as a group of children created a croquet game using a stick, a stone, and a hoop made from a pair of willing legs. A tree in our woods has long been recognised as the local “McDonald’s,” where children regularly exchange pine cones and stones for their chosen happy meal, usually chicken nuggets although, occasionally, it has been known to supply the odd apple or orange.
A tree stump we pass has become an ice cream stand, and the stories built around it are as rich and varied as the flavours imagined. These games aren’t planned or prompted by adults. They emerge because nature leaves space for invention.
There’s no “right” way to use a stick or interact with a tree stump. A stick can be a pencil, a wand, a fishing rod — or something entirely new. A stone can be money, a cake, an egg — or even, just a stone.
This week, our children needed a stone simply to be a stone, a weight heavy enough to anchor a pulley system they were building. No story, no character — just problem-solving, resourcefulness, and a moment of real-world thinking.
Children’s development thrives when they balance real-world experiences with imaginative exploration, as both contribute in equally meaningful ways.
In open-ended environments like the woods, imagination doesn’t come in a box, encased in plastic or dictated by instructions. It’s alive, spontaneous and rich with possibility. Through this kind of play, children practise problem-solving, collaboration, creativity, resilience, empathy, communication, leadership, and critical thinking — all while immersed in the sensory richness of the outdoors.
At CVN, we value time, space, and natural materials because they fuel not only imaginative thinking but also problem-solving, creativity, resilience, and social skills. When children are given room to explore and experiment, confidence, curiosity, and joy naturally flourish.
These rich, imaginative experiences also help children develop key capacities from our Flourish Framework — including engagement, independence, and fulfilment — laying strong foundations for a flourishing life.
Cambusbarron Village Nursery 