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[martinuzz]

I think I might have just found a solution to the question of how to separate children from your adult dwarf population, without using burrows (which have their drawbacks).
It does require some micromanagment though.

By creating an airlock room in between your fort proper and the area you want to be your nursery, you can exploit the child's ability to play with toys, to make them go there. By making sure that your only accessible toys are in that airlock, children will be drawn to it from the fort, and you can then rotate the airlock doors, so the child can only exit to the nursery. Once the child is in the nursery area, you can rotate the lock again, and wait for the next child to come grab a toy.

Just make sure the nursery has food and booze (dump it in from above), and you won't have to worry about your children going places they'll get eaten by a grue.
Children getting moody complicates matters a bit though. They'll need a craftsdwarf workshop. Not sure if dumping in materials for moods will work.

Make a lever in the airlock room. When a child grows up, use the manager to assign the lever to it, and you can then order it into the airlock room with a pull lever order, so you can let it enter the fort proper.

[Henry47]

You're worried about children being "eaten by a grue", but not adults? I would have thought those who can actually work would be more valuable. Still its seems a good idea for those who for some reason wish to protect their children but cannot be bothered to protect the rest of the fort.

[Psieye]

It's a lot easier to protect an adult than a child.

[Diamond]

Simple, yet elegant. Now find a way to automate that (pressure plates on both entrance and exit? provisions delivered by carts?) and we have an (almost) foolproof childcare containment solution to go along the actual education methods.

[Lordhermitcrab]

Now just add a retracting bridge in the airlock that falls onto spikes.

[Sanctume]

Now just add a retracting bridge in the airlock that falls onto spikes.

Flooded spikes they gain swimming skills, and their blood washes in the drained.

[PatrikLundell]

Since children are smaller than adults, and I presume you want to contain them in their first year or two, a pressure plate set to a weight far lower than that of adults, but still triggered by citizens might do the trick. Of course, some animal people are smaller as well, but they have no business with the toys.

[Henry47]

Since children are smaller than adults, and I presume you want to contain them in their first year or two, a pressure plate set to a weight far lower than that of adults, but still triggered by citizens might do the trick. Of course, some animal people are smaller as well, but they have no business with the toys.

But perhaps they have "business" with the children.

[PatrikLundell]

I don't think I've ever seen any dorf have any business with children. They roam free without any oversight. I guess an adult might carry an injured kid to a hospital, or possibly bring food or water to it, though. If you were to accidentally collect an animal people individual you could have a release lever (either inside or outside) to release them (and freshly minted adults).
And, in my fortress adults actually DO have a business with toys: they carry them back to the stockpile for the kids to spread them around again (sounds like some real world parents).

[martinuzz]

The only other time adult dwarves have business with dwarven children is when a dwarven mom gets a fell mood while carrying a child.