What is learning through play?
Learning through play is what it sounds like: your child picks something fun, and the skills ride along inside it. The American Academy of Pediatrics puts it plainly: play is "serious business" when it comes to a child's health and development4.
The AAP adds that research shows play can improve children's abilities to plan, organize, get along with others and regulate emotions, and that it helps with language, math and social skills4. In Robotics for Young Children, Ann Gadzikowski reports that the K-12 Computer Science Framework calls play the pedagogical bedrock of early learning2.
Kids also start out more capable than we tend to assume. A research review on early STEM notes that children are more competent than parents and teachers realize at learning science and math in kindergarten3. The same chapter quotes the idea that young children are engineers, because they modify the world to satisfy their own needs and wants3.
For a 5-year-old, play is not the break from learning. It is the main road in.
A toy or material with no single right way to use it.
Say it: “What else could this be?”Play your child starts and runs, with no grown-up goal1.
Say it: “What do you want to make today?”Your child still chooses, and you add a goal and a few questions1.
Say it: “Can your road reach the couch?”Play-based learning: free play vs guided play
Play-based learning covers a range. At one end sits free play. In the 2022 meta-analysis by Skene and colleagues, free play is defined as play initiated and directed by a child with no specified learning goal or adult involvement1. At the other end sits direct instruction: an adult teaches a skill and the child has limited choice1.
Guided play sits in the middle. The child keeps some freedom and choice. An adult starts the play experience with a learning goal in mind and guides with hints, open-ended questions, challenges, modeling, joining in, or adapting to what the child understands1.
- Your child picks the materials and the goal1
- You stay nearby, mostly quiet
- Great for exploring a new material and inventing
What the research found
In plain terms: with an adult nudging through questions and challenges, children did better on early math, shape knowledge and task switching than with direct teaching, and on spatial vocabulary (words for where things are) than with free play alone1. The "g" is an effect size: bigger means a bigger gap. The children averaged 1 to 8 years old, so these results fit the younger half of the 5-10 range best1.
Gadzikowski puts free play first: children are not ready to analyze a new toy until they have touched it and played with it2. Her cue for stepping in is frustration, a sign the child needs some guidance2.
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01Watch first.
Give a new material some free play time. Say nothing about learning yet2.
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02Join in.
Build something small next to your child. Joining in is one of the guided play moves1.
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03Set a challenge.
"Can you make a bridge a toy car can cross?" A challenge is another guided play move1.
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04Ask, don't tell.
Open-ended questions help children reflect2: What happened? Why? What next?
Open-ended toys: what makes good STEM learning toys
An open-ended toy has no single finished state. A jigsaw has one picture; a pile of blocks has a thousand buildings. That openness is what makes the best STEM learning toys work: your child sets a goal, runs into a problem, and solves it.
Look for materials that build shapes and space. Gadzikowski writes that young children develop spatial reasoning through play with blocks, puzzles and board games, and also through drawing, three-dimensional art and moving their bodies2. In a study of 847 children ages 4 to 7, those who played with puzzles, blocks and board games often (more than six times per week) had higher block design scores6. That is a link, not proof of cause, and the researchers planned experiments to test it6.
In its advice for toddlers, the AAP makes a point that holds at any age: simple and inexpensive objects are some of the best ways to support a child's creativity, and it is a parent's presence and attention that enriches children, not fancy electronic gadgets4.
| Material | Try this challenge | What it practices |
|---|---|---|
| Blocks or magnetic tiles | Build a garage that fits 3 cars | Shapes, balance, counting |
| Paper and tape | Fold a bridge that holds a toy | Planning, testing, fixing |
| Clay or play dough | Sculpt an animal that stands on its own | 3-D shapes, balance |
| Crayons and grid paper | Draw your build from above | Spatial thinking2 |
STEAM art: STEAM activities where the art does the thinking
STEAM adds the Arts to STEM5. Early math researchers Douglas Clements and Julie Sarama caution that adding domains can look positive yet may weaken the push for STEM in early education5. So good STEAM art keeps a real math or science idea inside the art.
Art is a strong door in. With hands-on objects and chances to draw, children can sometimes show through actions what they cannot yet describe in words3. Gadzikowski, inspired by the Reggio Emilia idea of the "hundred languages of children," encourages kids to show the same idea in more than one medium2.
Children will always need to learn with their hands as well as with their brains.2
Shadow tracing tower
- Blocks or tiles
- A flashlight
- Large paper taped to a wall
- Crayons
- Build a tower in front of the paper and shine the flashlight at it in a dark room.
- Your child traces the shadow in one color.
- Move the flashlight lower or to the side. Predict first: bigger or smaller? Trace again in a new color.
- Ask: why did the same tower make a different shadow?
Mirror mosaic
- Paper shapes or flat tiles
- A strip of tape down the middle of a table
- Paper and crayons
- Adult supervision if you use small pieces.
- You place three shapes on one side of the tape.
- Your child copies them on the other side, as if the tape were a mirror.
- Swap roles. Then build a bigger shape out of smaller ones on both sides.
- Draw the finished mosaic so it can be rebuilt tomorrow.
More STEAM projects for a rainy afternoon
- Origami. The early math chapter suggests origami as an ongoing way to think about geometric patterns3.
- Clay creatures. Can it stand on three legs? On two? Balance is engineering you can squish.
- Build, then draw. Your child sketches the tower from the front and from above. Two views of one object is spatial thinking2.
How to set up a play space at home
You do not need a playroom, just one corner where things may stay out. Gadzikowski's key suggestion for nurturing design thinking:
don’t clean up. Or at least clean up less.2
A protected spot lets a build wait, so children can return over several play sessions to reflect and add new ideas2.
- A low shelf or bin your child can reach without help
- Four to six open-ended materials out at once; rotate the rest
- A keep spot where unfinished builds can stay overnight2
- Paper and crayons nearby for plans and results
- A mistake log: one line per flop and what it taught you2
- Small pieces stored away from younger siblings
What learning through play looks like by age
Can: Build, knock down and rebuild; name shapes; take on one simple challenge at a time.
Try: Free play first, then one challenge, like "make it taller than your knee."
Can: Plan before building, record results and compare two versions.
Try: Sketch a plan, build, test, then draw what changed and why.
Frequently asked questions
What is an example of learning through play?
A child building a car garage from tiles is one. She plans, tests and fixes what falls. Add a goal like "fit three cars" and it becomes guided play1.
What are good STEM educational toys for a 5 year old?
Open-ended ones: blocks, tiles, puzzles, paper and tape, clay. Play with blocks, puzzles and board games is linked to spatial reasoning26. Simple, inexpensive objects work well, and your attention matters more than gadgets4.
Is STEAM learning better than STEM?
Not automatically. Clements and Sarama warn that adding domains may weaken the focus on STEM in early education5. STEAM works best when the art carries a real math or science idea, like symmetry or balance.
What homeschool science tools do you actually need?
For ages 5-10, start small: a flashlight, a measuring tape, blocks or tiles, and paper for drawing predictions and results. Drawing matters: children can sometimes show what they cannot yet say in words3.
How much should I guide my child's play?
Start with free play, especially with a new toy2. Step in with a question or challenge when your child gets frustrated or stuck2. Guided play keeps your child's choice while you keep a learning goal in mind1.
Keep exploring
- Math talk while you build Words that turn a tower into math.
- Building blocks and magnetic tiles ideas Challenge cards for the play corner.
- The Engineering Design Loop at Home The full loop with a real build.
If you want a kit for this
Everything above works with household materials. For an open-ended set in the play corner, our Magnetic Travel Tiles snap together with magnets and come with cars for roads and garages.
Build it with / Ages 5-7Magnetic Travel Tiles with CarsFlat shapes that stand up into roads and garages.$39.99GoP Toys sells the kit mentioned above. None of the sources cited tested our products.