Building blocks naturally appeal to children, which is great because playing with blocks helps children develop many essential skills for a happy life. These strengths include language, physical, cognitive and emotional development. Activity ideas focused on these areas, when planned, enhance children’s overall learning and growth potential.

In addition, studies show that complex block-building activities help children learn necessary math skills as they discover mathematical combinations and associate the numerical value of the quantities on the blocks. This article provides a variety of activity ideas for playing with building blocks.

Very young children around 1 1/2 years old and older can begin to play with blocks. When choosing toys for this age group, try to avoid plastic styles as they tend to have uneven surfaces and can be difficult to stack. This can create a frustrating learning experience for the young child. High-quality blocks are available from a variety of brands, including Melissa and Doug, Maxim, and Citiblock.

Activity ideas can be planned based on two categories: divergent and convergent problem-solving skills. Diverging building block activities allow children to find a solution through trial and error until the correct working solution is identified. Puzzle building block activities are a good example of a divergent activity idea. Another example of this type of activity is Melissa and Doug’s Alphabet Stacking and Nesting Blocks. The game is designed for children ages 2 and up. The 10-piece set contains visually appealing blocks in many colors. A storage case is included with this set to help children learn that cleanliness is also an important aspect of responsible activity play. One activity idea parents can try is to introduce their child to one or two numbers or letters of the alphabet at a time, so it’s not too much so as not to overwhelm the child in early learning.

Rolling a plastic ball to knock over stacked blocks is also an activity idea to try. As each block is collected and re-stacked, you can ask your child to identify the letter number of the newly learned alphabet to improve cognitive memory. You can also count how many blocks fell and how many are still standing to encourage math building skills.

As children grow and find stacking blocks a simple task, they move on to convergence-based type of blocks. The convergent game involves those activities that have many solution options, highlighting the flexibility of creativity. Children learn to distinguish the differences between the sizes of the blocks and develop physically; using their arm muscles to reach and stack, which also uses hand-eye coordination. The Melissa and Doug Building Block Collection includes the “100 Wooden Block Set” for ages 3 and up. This set allows the child’s imagination to take center stage, and in doing so, the cognitive skills to create abstract concepts help foster their thinking skills.

Haba Color Architectural Fantasy Building Blocks and Melissa and Doug Sets feature colorless columns to help kids test their building imaginations in a colorless base-type block set. Here they can really understand and describe the difference in the form and function of each building block when stacked or placed side by side, all put to the test of their individual imagination. Brands like Citiblock present a diverse way of using flat-form block styles to build structures. Melissa and Doug Maxim toy trains and wooden unit blocks on wheels feature wheels to introduce young minds to the rolling concept of wheels.

All of these toys invite parents to get involved by creating pretend play scenarios when they can suggest a project to build, such as a house or barn. Add items to the right scale, such as blocky animals and people, to encourage your child’s ideas. Reserve story time and building block play so your child can understand how the story unfolds using all the senses and to stimulate creativity in different narratives.

The price of building blocks is affordable and generally cheap compared to other toys. And while many toys may come with bells and whistles, most tend to appeal to only one or two senses of sight and hearing, while building blocks help children experiment cognitively, learn social skills, and lead them to a Unlimited travel.