7 Reasons Worksheets Are Unnecessary for Preschoolers

If you often find yourself reaching for worksheets to use with your preschoolers at home or in class, you’re definitely not alone. With so much focus on early education these days, it’s easy to feel like real learning needs to look a certain way — often involving pens, paper, and sitting still.

But it’s worth pausing to ask: are worksheets actually the best fit for how young children learn?

This blog was born out of my passion for talking about the benefits of play and a desire to share just how powerful it can be in a child’s early development. Whether speaking to parents or educators, I often find myself not just highlighting the benefits of play, but also standing up for it.

More and more, early learning is leaning towards structured, academic approaches, and worksheets have become a go-to tool. But are they really what preschoolers need?

Decades of research have shown that young children learn best through play — in fact, it’s how they learn everything in the early years.

Between birth and age six, play is essential for developing thinking skills, problem-solving, reading, writing and even early maths.

Yet in recent years, there’s been a shift towards formalising early education, often at the expense of play. This pressure can come from schools or parents who believe structured activities are more valuable.

But the truth is, worksheets and workbooks simply aren’t developmentally appropriate — or necessary — for preschoolers.

Here are 7 reasons why worksheets aren’t the best choice for a child’s overall holistic development.

1. Gross Motor Skills

Let’s start at the beginning: children learn through their bodies. From birth, they explore and understand the world using their senses and movement.

Gross motor skills involve the development of large muscles. Before a child can hold a pencil and write, they first need to master skills like holding their head up, sitting upright, walking, and balancing.

Only after years of building core strength and developing both large and small muscles (fine motor skills) will they be able to write with control.

Preschoolers benefit most from spending time running, climbing, balancing, and engaging in all kinds of movement activities. These activities strengthen muscles, improve coordination, and prepare the body for school readiness.

Strong core muscles, good posture, balance, and coordination are essential for sitting at a desk and using writing tools comfortably.

Movement also stimulates brain development by forming new neural pathways, which supports cognitive growth and focus.

In short, active play lays the foundation for learning — including the ability to sit still, concentrate, and eventually write.

2. Fine Motor Skills

As mentioned earlier, children naturally develop large muscles before small ones. Fine motor skills involve the small muscles in the fingers, hands, eyes, tongue, and more.

While writing may seem like a useful fine motor activity, it’s actually one of the final steps — not the starting point.

Strong fine motor skills enable a child to write; writing itself doesn’t build the foundations needed for it.

There are many playful ways to support fine motor development, such as:

• Painting with brushes of different sizes
• Drawing with crayons or chalk (large and small)
• Building puzzles
• Moulding playdough
• Cutting and pasting
• Tearing paper
• Playing with pegboards
• Lacing and threading activities
• Drawing with pencil crayons
  

Spending time on these kinds of hands-on tasks strengthens the fingers and prepares the body for the physical demands of school, like holding a pencil and sitting to write.

It also takes time to develop a correct pencil grip. If children are expected to write too soon, they often form poor habits that are difficult to change later on.

3. Concentration Span

In the early years, a child’s concentration span typically matches their age — about 2 to 3 minutes per year. For example, a 3-year-old can usually focus on a single task for 6 to 9 minutes. [source]

They may engage in play for longer stretches but often shift between different types of activities.

Short attention spans are a common challenge in schools, and pushing preschoolers to complete worksheets doesn’t support focus — it can actually hinder it.

Expecting a child to sit still for extended periods simply isn’t developmentally appropriate.

One of the most effective ways to build concentration is through movement. Active play strengthens focus far more than structured workbook time.

4. Developmental Appropriateness

The preschool years are meant for learning through play — and there’s extensive research to support this.

Various studies around the world have explored the effects of introducing formal education too early. In many cases, children who experienced more academic-style preschool showed no long-term benefits — and sometimes even negative outcomes later in school.

One notable study from Germany found that children who attended play-based preschools actually performed better in reading and maths by fourth grade than those who received formal instruction early on.

In most countries, formal education begins around age 6. Preschool is a time for informal, exploratory learning.

There will be plenty of time for workbooks in the years ahead. Preschool is the window for play, discovery, and laying the foundation for future learning.

5. Maturity

Young children need time to grow and mature — physically, emotionally, and cognitively.

We wouldn’t expect a newborn to turn the pages of a book, yet it’s often expected that a 3-year-old should sit and complete formal tasks, in the hope that it will speed up learning.

In practice, this often misses the mark. I was frequently asked during parent meetings, “Does my child know the numbers and letters yet?”

While young children can memorise the alphabet or count to 100, that doesn’t mean they understand what the letters and numbers represent. Real learning is rooted in meaning, not memorisation.

A child who can count six actual objects is further along in mathematical thinking than one who can recite numbers without understanding quantity.

Similarly, knowing letter names isn’t the same as being ready to read. Without strong phonological awareness — the ability to hear and play with sounds — blending letters like b and r into a word like broom can be a struggle.

Preschoolers build vital pre-reading skills by singing nursery rhymes, playing sound games, and exploring language in playful ways. These experiences prepare them to read with understanding later on.

Pushing too far, too soon can lead to frustration and a sense of failure. Learning should always match a child’s stage of development, not rush ahead of it.

6. Time to Play

Time spent on formal activities in the early years often takes away from what children truly need — time to play.

Preschoolers naturally fill their days with meaningful activities like drawing, singing, listening to stories, climbing, building, and exploring the outdoors. These experiences are not just fun — they are learning.

When formal workbooks are introduced, they usually replace these rich, play-based opportunities.

Add screen time into the mix, and play can easily become an afterthought.

Protecting time for unstructured play is one of the best ways to support a child’s development — socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively.

7. Short-Term Strategies

Learning in the early years should focus on long-term development, not quick results.

Take block building, for example. A child solving how to balance a tower is practising problem-solving, spatial awareness, and persistence — all essential lifelong skills.

In contrast, tracing the letter b ten times may help a child briefly recognise it, but the learning often doesn’t last. The activity has little meaning, and it doesn’t build deeper skills like sound awareness or language understanding.

There are even programs that teach 3-year-olds to read through repetition and drill work. And yes — some children do learn to decode basic words this way. But when reading becomes more complex in later grades, early readers without strong foundations often struggle.

Why? Because they’ve missed the essential building blocks: auditory and visual perception, memory, phonological awareness, rhyme and syllable recognition, vocabulary, comprehension, and more.

English is a complex language. Sounds change depending on how and where they appear in a word. Some words follow no rules at all and must be recognised by sight.

Real reading ability relies on the ability to hear and manipulate sounds, recognise patterns, and make sense of what is being read.

What supports this? Simple, playful experiences: listening to rhymes, playing I-Spy, spotting objects that start with a certain sound. These are the long-term strategies that build confident, capable readers over time.

Play is not just a break from learning — in the early years, it is the most meaningful and effective way for children to learn and grow.