The Childcare Act 2006 provides the underpinning legislation for a single quality framework for supporting children's learning development and care from birth to five. This is encompassed in the early years foundation stage (EYFS). EYFS has been designed to deliver improved outcomes for all children, by providing a flexible, play-based framework, fostering all children's development from birth to five, and ensuring that practitioners use observational assessment systematically to plan for individual children's progression at a pace that is right for them in various areas of learning and development. One of these areas is "problem solving, reasoning and numeracy." The author advises that mathematical understanding and skills be developed through stories, songs, games and imaginative play by supplying children with problems, and contexts for problems, in each of the areas of mathematics that are covered in the EYFS. Mathematical activities should be organized to appeal to children's natural curiosity and be open-ended, play-based, and challenging.