Playing with fire is part of growing up for four year olds at the St Thomas Aquinas Early Learning Centre.
The tots are given flammable materials to rub together. Under close supervision, tiny hands work flint and tree leaves together and eventually create fire.
In the process, they learn about science and danger and, well, life. "We don't bubble-wrap children," the director of the preschool, Christien Appel, says.
This teaching method is a long way from the belief of safety-obsessed parents. A new study done at Deakin University found that "more than three-quarters of parents expressed a low tolerance for adventurous play".
The more adventurous way at the Canberra early learning centre involves fire and also hammers and nails. It's about jumping from rocks and getting feet wet.
"Our children come to us learning to take risks. They play in a playground full of rocks and water features," Mrs Appel says.
Risk at the preschool is controlled but not reduced to near zero. In fire-making, for example, the children are not given matches but they are given the flint and the dry leaves to work into combustion in fire-proof trays.
"They test green leaves and brown leaves to see which burn the quickest," Mrs Appel says.
Lessons are learnt - like fire is hot.
"It works," the centre's head says. "Children who leave our service are competent in making decisions for themselves by viewing the world around them.
"A child will know if they are capable of jumping from one rock to another, but they need to be able to assess if they are capable of doing it first."
Children, according to the school's "play-based learning through intentional teaching" philosophy, need to be able to learn from their own mistakes.
There are 44 children on the rolls. Amongst the intake are four sets of twins, two of them the sons of Ester Banda who arrived in Australia in 2018.
Twins
The mother welcomed the preschool's attitude to risk. She has noticed that Australian children have a very different upbringing from those where she came from in Africa.
"Australian parents drive their kids to school whereas African kids can explore and do things by themselves. You can send your child to a shop at a very young age," she said.
"We started doing things at a very young age [in her part of Africa]. We learn how to do things."
Twins present a different situation from other children, according to the learning centre's director. "Twins tend to argue more easily than other children," Mrs Appel believes.
It's not an iron rule but an observation based on her experience. "You are always more aware when the siblings are together that an argument could happen, so as an adult you step in a little bit sooner."
The reason may be that twins have each other as back-up. "They give each other the ability to be more brave," Mrs Appel says.
The reason may be that twins have each other as back-up. Their offsider has been there since birth.
It can make them more confident than other children. They may be more up-front.
"They give each other the ability to be more brave," Mrs Appel says. "They have someone they know very well to do it with them."
But the closeness presents a different challenge. "You then need to build their individual identities so that they can be brave when the other twin is not there."
Mrs Appel believes that whether children are twins or not, they need to learn to assess risk. Wrapping them in cotton wool, she believes, doesn't help them do that.
