Building blocks are a classic toy that have captivated children’s imaginations for generations. More than just fun, research shows building blocks offer important educational and developmental benefits for kids.
As your child approaches the key developmental stage of age 6, a structured set of building blocks can support learning across multiple domains. From honing fine motor skills to developing creativity and problem-solving, building blocks equip 6 year olds with crucial skills for the school years ahead.
This beginner’s guide will explore the many options for building blocks suited for 6 year olds. You’ll uncover the unique learning opportunities offered by different materials and components. Read on for tips on choosing the right building block set to match your child’s interests and development level.
Benefits of Building Blocks
Before reviewing specific building block sets, let’s examine why building blocks should be part of every 6 year old’s toy collection:
Encourage Imagination and Creativity
Building blocks spark a child’s natural creativity by allowing open-ended construction play. Rather than following step-by-step instructions, kids are free to build whatever their imagination conceives. This fosters key skills like innovation, problem-solving, and design.
Develop Fine Motor Skills
Grasping, stacking, and manipulating variously shaped blocks strengthens small hand muscles and overall finger dexterity. This supports essential writing and handling abilities.
Enhance Spatial Reasoning
Visualizing and analyzing shapes, sizes, patterns, balance, and geometry lay the foundations for strong math and science skills.
Promote Language and Literacy
Describing their structures, collaborating with others, and storytelling all exercise linguistic competencies from vocabulary to grammar to communication skills.
Teach STEM Concepts
Exploring engineering, physics, design, and mathematics principles through hands-on building are precisely what make blocks ideal educational toys.
With the incredible academic, social, and developmental potential of building blocks, let’s examine popular options suitable for 6 year olds.
Building Blocks for 6 Year Olds
There are diverse building block materials, components, and sets to consider from age 6 onwards:
Classic Wooden Blocks
No guide on building blocks is complete without classic wooden blocks. These versatile, unfinished wooden cubes encourage open-ended construction play and imagination.
- Simple, multi-colored wooden cubes
- Flexible for endless structure building
- Develops creativity and design skills
- Promotes balance and structural engineering
- Great for solo or group play
Age Range: Toddlers to Elementary School
Skills Developed. Imagination, Balance, Symmetry, Creativity, Design, Open-Ended Play
Price Range: $25-$60 for 80-100 piece sets
Magnetic Building Blocks
These brilliantly designed blocks have embedded magnets allowing connections from all sides and angles. The possibilities are endless!
- Colorful and creatively inspire
- Magnets allow dynamic connections
- Develops spatial reasoning abilities
- Promotes STEM and engineering concepts
- Enhances creativity and problem-solving
Age Range: Toddlers to Elementary School
Skills Developed: Spatial Reasoning, Creativity, Design, Magnetism Basics, Problem-Solving
Price Range: $40-$90 for 30-100 piece sets
Cardboard Building Blocks
An eco-friendly take, these reusable corrugated cardboard blocks encourage imagination and role play. From rockets to bridges to castles, all ideas are fair game.
- Lightweight for young builders
- Reusable and recyclable materials
- Imaginative, open-ended play structures
- Develops creativity and storytelling
- Promotes innovative engineering
Age Range: Toddlers to Early Elementary
Skills Developed: Creativity, Imagination, Storytelling, Design
Price Range: $25-$40 for 50-100 piece sets
Preschool Building Bricks
Compatibility and versatility make plastic preschool bricks top picks for budding builders. From animals to buildings to vehicles, snap together a world of possibilities.
- Beginner-friendly plastic bricks
- Bright colors and fun themes
- Develops fine motor skills
- Builds spatial reasoning abilities
- Some compatible with major brands
- Encourages imaginative role play
Age Range: Toddlers to Early Elementary
Skills Developed: Fine Motor Skills, Creativity, Role Play
Price Range: $25-$60 for 80-300 piece sets
Choosing the Right Building Blocks
With an array of building blocks available, focus on a few key considerations when selecting materials for your 6 year old:
| Factor | Description |
|---|---|
| Interests | Opt for themes that align with your child’s preferences from animals to buildings to transportation. |
| Skills | Prioritize blocks for developing your child’s fine motor abilities, math competencies, creativity etc. |
| Age & Stage | Ensure blocks suit the dexterity, reasoning, and construction abilities of a 6 year old. |
| Compatibility | For expanded building potential, choose blocks compatible with major brands your child may own now or in the future. |
| Budget | Building block sets range broadly in price from $20 to over $100. Set realistic expectations based on what you can spend. |
Spatial reasoning, design, balance, symmetry, magnetism – building blocks instill many of the skills essential to STEM learning. While play takes center stage, you can deliberately highlight these concepts as your 6 year old creates, reinforcing the incredible developmental benefits underlying the fun.
Open-ended construction kits allow children to build at their own level while structured sets with activity cards nurture specific skills like numeracy, literacy and problem-solving. At age 6, a blend of both foster a progression in complexity vital for the school years ahead.
As your child constructs imaginative new worlds block by block, let their creativity guide the way. These deceptively simple toys build so much more than just towers and structures. They construct key competencies empowering 6 year olds to stack success for the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best building blocks for a 6 year old?
The best building blocks for 6 year olds promote skills like fine motor abilities, creativity, problem-solving, spatial reasoning, and design. Popular options include classic wooden blocks, magnetic blocks, cardboard blocks, and preschool building bricks.
Should my 6 year old have structured or unstructured building blocks?
Experts recommend a blend of both structured blocks with some guidance and open-ended blocks for pure imaginative building. This allows kids to create at their own level while still developing key skills.
How do building blocks support early education?
Building blocks provide hands-on learning in areas like math, engineering, physics, design, balance, magnetism, and problem-solving – laying a foundation for core STEM abilities.
What developmental milestones do building blocks target at age 6?
Building blocks help improve fine motor skills, creativity, spatial reasoning, design skills, balance, symmetry and problem-solving – all crucial developments at age 6 just before starting grade school.
Should I choose basic blocks or themed sets for my 6 year old?
You can select a mix. Basic block sets allow for endless open-ended construction while themed sets like animals, buildings, vehicles etc can stimulate role play, storytelling and developmental activities making learning fun.
Which skills do building blocks improve the most in 6 year olds?
Building blocks notably advance creativity, spatial reasoning, design capabilities, fine motor skills, problem-solving, mathematics, symmetry, and imagination in 6 year olds – talents that will support academic success.