Have you ever had to bite your tongue when hearing another parent droning on about how talented her four year-old is?

How outstanding at mathematics. . ? How enormously accomplished a musician . . ?

What a veritable Leonardo da Vinci?

Do you then congratulate yourself on your more measured attitude to achievement?

No one wants to be the sort of parent who uses her child as a status symbol but what about the risks of moderation?

By setting modest levels of attainment are we not limiting our children's potential?

It's certainly true in sport that the dividing line between winning and losing is not so much nuances of skill as attitude.

And that implies that the best present we can give our children is a can-do attitude.

No one knows what they are capable of until they try.

That is even more true for children and a very good reason for providing a wide range of activities in nurseries and playgroups, wherethe focus is on acquiring skills and knowledge through play.

Look closely at the hive of activity available for your child, and you will see divisions into different areas of play: the home corner, where children role-play, the sand and water area, the music section, the quiet area for reading and so on.

And, of course, there is a creative area, where children can paint huge pictures, make prints from leaves, play with crayons etc.

"Ah," you say, "we're not creative in our family. None of us can draw."

True, we can't all be a Leonardo but, catch a child before preconceptions have set in and they can develop more fully than you could ever imagine.

As important, in the creative corner, they are enjoying the freedom and confidence that comes from mixing the powder paint with water to get the right consistency, finger painting or standing at the easel and painting with broad flourishes.

They are not only expressing their personalities, but deriving real satisfaction from completing the picture and earning praise.

That alone is a spur to further achievement.

However, developing their artistic side is not the only thing going on.

The children are acquiring hard-learned social skills: learning to consider the sensitivities of their peers, taking turns, sharing resources.

This inevitably leads to learning about numbers three for you and three for me.

And, while negotiating in this way, they are improving their language skills: learning the difference between issuing instructions and making requests.

In other words, all learning interlinks in play.

And the same applies to the other play areas.

The sand and water area, for example, provides enormous scope for learning about mathematics and science.

How many spoons of sand can fill a bucket? What happens when you push the nozzle of a washing up liquid bottle into a bucket of water and squeeze?

Answering questions like this is as exciting for a child as a break-through experiment for a scientist and one that can fire a genuine enthusiasm for learning.