I took the Toys outreach to a small, rural Church of England primary school today.

Briefly this workshop consists of a short introductory chat about favourite toys, what they do and what they are made of, followed by the children in three groups having ten to fifteen minutes play with each of a selection of 'Granddad's and grandma's toys', Victorian toys and Tudor toys, followed by a plenary session when I point out, for example, that knuckle bones, five stones and jacks are the same game and very, very ancient, that hoops are used in different ways at different times etc., the changes in materials etc., where we get the toys nowadays - Toys R Us, toy shops, catalogues, Argos, supermarkets, e-Bay etc. - compared with the toy makers and toy shops of Victorian times and the home-made toys of Tudor times and earlier. With the first group (years 1 and 2) everything went exactly as it always does with the questions and answers I expected.

After playtime it was the turn of Reception and the younger half of year 1. The talked about their toys and played as usual, then we came to the questions.

One of the Tudor toys is a very crude wooden doll - and I remarked that if your dad happened to be a carpenter he would have more spare wood and make better toys than other dads.

"Joseph was a carpenter."
"Indeed he was."
"He would have made toys for Jesus."
"I'm sure he would."
And suddenly these 4 to 6 year olds were discussing the toys of 2,000 years ago and what sort of toys Joseph would have made for Jesus.

We are so used to the image of the baby in the stable, and the 12 year old boy left behind in the Temple in Jerusalem that perhaps we are less moved by them than we should be, but somehow I found the picture of our Saviour as a child the same age as these children standing trustfully beside Joseph and fetching his tools, and playing with the toys made for him very touching.

We can learn a great deal from little children.