Updated 7 August 2026
With us, play is never a break from learning – it is the learning itself. When children build towers, play shop or turn the yard into a jungle, some of the most important work in a child’s life is under way.
The curriculum agrees
The preschool curriculum, Lpfö 18 (revised 2025), states that play is the foundation of development, learning and well-being, and that play and movement are to have a central place in preschool education. The revision, in force since 1 July 2025, also clarifies that learning tools in preschool should primarily be analogue – books, images and hands-on materials – that daily reading aloud is given a lifted place, and that preschool teachers choose working methods based on science and proven experience.
Children do not learn despite playing – they learn because they play.
In play, children imitate, fantasise and process impressions from their everyday life. At the same time, motor skills, language, communication, cooperation and problem-solving are challenged and stimulated. For our multilingual children, play is also a wonderful language bridge – in role play, children dare to try new words and expressions, in both Swedish and English, long before they use them elsewhere.
Free play and guided play – both are needed
Sometimes play should be entirely the children’s own. Sometimes our teachers step in and enrich it – with new concepts, materials or a question that moves the play forward. The art is to be present without taking over: to protect children’s play, give it time and space, and catch the learning moments that arise. Our everyday life makes room for every form of play – and each one trains something of its own:
Towers, tracks and constructions – maths and motor skills, hands first.
Shop, family and jungle – language, empathy and imagination in one.
Running, jumping and dancing – the body joins the learning, outdoors and in.
That is why we plan our environments, indoors and out, to invite every kind of play – and the quiet exploring in between. When you pick up your child and hear ”we just played today”, you can rest assured: it has been a really good day.
This article was translated from the Swedish original with the help of AI.
Further reading
Curriculum for the Preschool, Lpfö 18 (revised 2025) – Swedish National Agency for Education
Play and interaction in a preschool for all – Skolverket’s learning portal
More from the blog: Multilingualism as an asset · Settling in · Our pedagogy
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Come and visit us – we will show you around, introduce our teachers and answer any questions you have.
