It’s great to watch our children having fun with their games and belongings (“toys” sounds a little inappropriate), but once the fun’s over the serious work of persuading them to tidy up begins. This is a side of play that has a serious side to it and can be a positive learning experience for youngsters. Once LA1 had finished using the Meccano sets (see the previous post, “STEAM Power”), they became responsible for accounting for all their pieces and ensuring that the next group of students would have an opportunity to use a full and complete set. Accountability and responsibility are very important life lessons, as is making sure you are doing something for the benefit of others. The students had to sift through all their pieces, arrange them and count them against the parts list in their sets. The students did a great job and appear to have not lost a single part; bear this in mind next time they claim it’s too difficult to tidy up and check they haven’t lost anything.