Blocks: When can your child play with them & play tips

by Joost Nusselder Updated on: October 24, 2023

A block is a toy made of wood or plastic of a simple three-dimensional shape.

Usually children play with a whole collection of blocks. Simple structures can then be made with these blocks.

Playing with blocks is really educational for your little one! Your child learns to distinguish shapes and different sizes.

It is great for fine motor development and for practicing construction skills.

The muscle development in the hands and arms of your little one is strengthened and the hand-eye coordination develops better.

It is also a great way to work with other children and it is very conducive to your child's creativity and imagination.

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From what age can my baby play with blocks?

Babies can pick up and research blocks as early as six months, so it's actually fun for kids from that age.

My son also loved grabbing them and slowly turning them around a bit and inspecting them.

Then he grabbed them and started crawling with them (this is how they learn), the orange cubes were always his favorite somehow.

But holding it and putting it in your mouth a little is about all you can expect at this age. Learning how to stack blocks will take a few more months.

By the time your baby is 12 months old, he should be able to stack one block on top of another, and he will also enjoy banging them together and hearing what happens.

Blocks are a great way to stimulate your child's creativity, teach her to organize, balance, and stack.

Building structures from blocks is a great workout for your child's growing body and brain, as it requires both physical dexterity and planning.

Another plus: blocks remain fun for a long time. Many children will enjoy playing with blocks from childhood through toddlerhood and beyond where they get more and more creative.

When your baby first starts playing with blocks, show them some fun activities, such as dropping the blocks into a plastic bowl or container and then pouring them out.

He will also get a kick out of seeing how to make a tower out of blocks and then knock them down himself.

Ultimately, he will try his own construction projects. When your child is about 18 months old, he will begin to understand how to sort blocks by color, size, images, etc.

What do children learn from stacking with blocks?

Playing with blocks is not just a fun pastime for your child. It is also very educational.

Below we will give some examples of what playing with blocks is not good for:

Gross motor skills

For example, your child will build a tower with blocks. In order to do this, a stable starting position will be required;

Your child is sitting on the floor or perhaps on a chair. Building will never succeed with a wobbly hull.

The child will always have to adjust his posture while playing with the blocks; At the place where the blocks are and also at the height of the tower.

This stimulates your little one's gross motor skills.

Eye-hand coordination

Your child looks at what his or her hands are doing, which is important for eye-hand coordination.

Fine motor skills

The blocks must also be released at the right time and sometimes the other hand must also be used; This stimulates fine motor skills.

The development of the muscles: Your little one must always adapt his grip to the size, shape and weight of the blocks.

When grabbing, your child exercises his shoulder muscles and hand and finger muscles.

Sensory

A wooden block feels different than a block made of soft fabric or plastic, for example. This can play a role in stacking.

Your little one learns the characteristics of certain materials.

Knowledge

Your little one develops his thinking ability; For example, to build a tower, the surface must be flat, because a leaning tower will fall over!

And putting a large block on a small block is more difficult than the other way around!

Concentration ability

Your little one's ability to concentrate is put to the test; After all, the tower can fall over if he or she is not paying attention.

Patience

Your child will have to develop patience if building doesn't work all at once and he or she has to start over a few times.

Why you should let your child play with blocks

Blocks may be the most basic of toys, but they are anything but boring.

Blocks are universally entertaining, but as your little one discovers the joys of building and stacking, they also learn a lot.

Besides improving motor skills, playing with blocks also improves problem solving skills.

This is a toy that has been around for ages and it is definitely something your child must have in their toy box.

Advantages of blocks

Even the simplest set of blocks contains the seeds of imagination, creation and destruction.

Your toddler will love to stack a tower of blocks as high as possible and then watch what happens when they knock them over.

This is a way for toddlers to develop fine motor skills and explore concepts such as early math, geometry, problem solving and cause and effect.

After they figure out the blocks' properties - size, weight, shape, and level of stability - it doesn't take them long to build cities complete with roads and bridges.

Types of blocks game

• Weight and gravity: A 2-year-old may not yet have the ability to build impressive architectural structures, but they can create block stacks and move blocks, which teaches them about weight and balance. Little ones quickly learn the concept of gravity by knocking over a stack of blocks.
• Stacking and rows: Your child starts consciously stacking blocks around the age of three. The simple structures your little one builds are actually patterns, which involve a bit of introductory math, such as fractions: Two square blocks next to each other are the same size and shape as a larger, rectangular block.
• Bridging: This is the stage where your preschool-aged child starts building their own structures by placing two blocks on the ground and bridging the other. Like the earlier stages, it learns balance. It also introduces symmetry and organization.

Storing blocks

Blocks can be thrown into a large container or stacked neatly on a shelf.

If you have blocks of different shapes or from different sets, you can make a small building instruction out of paper and put it in the block bin to help your child stack while cleaning up.

Keep cars, dolls and other toys nearby and you have the perfect setting to encourage your toddler to play dramatically as soon as they get back to it.

Set rules for blocks

Your toddler's large foam blocks quickly become Lego and become a plague to parents' soles. The problem with blocks is that there are so many.

Help your child clean up early on and insist that blocks are put away according to your house rules, whether that rule is to clear them up before they pick up another toy (I would definitely recommend that!) Or together with all the toys at the end of the day.

An exception to this rule, however, could be if your toddler is in the middle of an ongoing project or struggles to abort a creation.

In that case, leave the work so that they can continue to manipulate and admire it. Don't worry: they will get bored quickly, move on and the blocks can be put away.

You may also want to establish a rule not to allow your toddler to stack blocks higher than his head.

They may be tempted to stand on a chair to stack the blocks even higher, or be injured if heavier blocks fall on them.

You can relax the rules as your child gets better at stacking and know how to stay away from falling blocks.

Other tips:

• Discourage your toddler and toddler from throwing blocks (even if they still have the soft ones so that they learn it)
• Make sure your toddler does not climb on potentially unstable block structures.
• Do not discourage your child from overthrowing their own creations. It's part of the learning process, but make sure they learn to respect the creations of others.

Here is Gerard Hoff showing on Youtube how much fun it is to knock over blocks:

Is playing with blocks more important than playing with other toys?

Playing is very important for the general development of your child. Your little one will become more capable and learn so much about himself, but also about others and from the world around him.

Every child plays with toys for fun. Small children explore the world and the people around them while playing.

They do this by moving, looking, feeling, listening, thinking, imitating and communicating while playing.

So let your kids play as much as they can, the smarter they get!

Let your child play with blocks!

We have also especially seen the importance of playing with blocks and what that means for the overall development of your child.

What are good building blocks to give to your child?

Good building blocks suit your child's development. For example, there are soft blocks in the first stages of baby, and as they grow older they can become wooden blocks. The best building blocks (we've reviewed some of them here) are made of non-toxic material and decorated with non-toxic paint, because at this age they often want to put something in their mouths.

Joost Nusselder, the founder of Speelkeuze.nl is a content marketer, father and loves trying out new toys. As a child he came into contact with everything related to games when his mother started the Tinnen Soldaat in Ede. Now he and his team create helpful blog articles to help loyal readers with fun play ideas.