I work regularly with a local pre-school, and each year a different year group brings it’s new characters, a unique team forms and together they help each other make adventures that only that combination of children can create.  Each year I watch fascinated, wondering what will emerge.  One year the group pushes my knot tying skills to the limits as they create ever complex rope swings, the next created a story den where Goldilocks always returned, and this group this year are completely mesmerised by water, mud, and this week, the ice.  Here is a very special moment that will always stay with me.  An unusual couple play contentedly and with absolute kindness and generosity.  Both are head strong, often charging ahead with what they want leaving the other children swirling in their wake.  But in the woods they drift towards each other, completing each others sentences, enhancing each others’ ideas, welcoming their curious peers but almost not noticing when those children’s attention is caught else where.  Completely immersed in their deep play they hardly notice the time pass and it is a joy to observe.  It also reminds me not to assume which children will work well together as sometimes the most surprising matches create the most breathtaking partnerships.  Kind of gives me hope!