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The Wonder Of Small World Play

When it comes to play-based learning, kids often gravitate towards small world play because it allows them to use their imaginations in wild and wonderful ways. In this article, we look at the benefits of small world play as well as which toys are best for encouraging hours of creative and educational fun.

two children playing with colorful grapat toys

Summer Land Author + Writer

Remember spending hours configuring the perfect living room in your dollhouse for your mini family to spend time in?

Remember taking twigs, leaves and flowers from the backyard to create a magical fairy garden?

Remember carefully setting up your wooden train set and then watching proudly as your little engine that could rode around in circles?

If you answered yes to any other those questions, then you partook in small world play!!!

Incredibly beneficial for a child’s cognitive and physical development, this type of play is now getting even better thanks to brands creating mini toys for kids to explore, manipulate and imagine with. Wondering how you can support your tot’s small world play time? Scroll down to learn more.

In this article, we’ll look at:

What small world play is
The benefits of small world play
Our toy picks for small world pay

Scroll down to learn more!

What is Small World Play?

Just like it sounds, small world play is any type of play that allows children to use their imaginations to build mini worlds and adventures while playing with small toys. These can range from anything abstract like small rings, blocks and nature items to figurines, train sets, dollhouses and building sets. However, the goal is to set up a scene, world or place. This helps children establish the bigger picture of their imaginative play.

While it’s fun to play with a pirate figurine, if a child is able to create a ship to sail, an ocean to cross, another boat to battle and the harsh winds to avoid, they’re able to get deeper into their narrative, which helps them develop a sense of self, stronger vocabulary and ability to think creatively.

Designed to encourage children to play in an open-ended manner, small world play allows children to dream, problem-solve and experiment all while honing important fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

The Benefits of Small World Play

Can be an independent or social activity
Encourages creative and imaginative thinking
Hones fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination
Builds confidence
Allows children to think critically and problem-solve
Expands vocabulary and a child’s ability to tell a story
Helps children understand sequencing
Facilitates role play, which can help children experiment with other personalities and develop a sense of self

Our Small World Play Toy Picks

At The Tot, we never use or recommend anything that hasn’t passed The Tot Safety Test. That means we’ve reviewed third-party testing and asked in-depth questions about the composition of every product sold on our site. Click here to find out more about the ingredients we avoid and why.