Engineering learning in early childhood is increasingly recognized as a foundation for later STEM engagement, yet few studies have explored how structured repair activities can foster both technical understanding and emotional engagement. This study explores 5–6-year-old children’s experiences in a toy repair workshop designed to introduce a coherent toolkit as a component of technical-engineering thinking. Grounded in a framework emphasizing engaging tasks, recognition of children as capable problem-solvers, and a structured multi-step repair process, the study employed a mixed-methods design with 25 children in two kindergartens in Israel. Data included pre- and post-interviews, analysis of repair processes, and observations of children’s emotional responses across three repair tasks. Findings revealed that structured repair fostered functional tool understanding, design-oriented problem-solving, and emotionally engaged learning. Furthermore, the activities promoted an emergent repair literacy, fostering values of sustainability and care as children restored function to broken objects. By integrating cognition, action, and emotion, the study extends constructionist approaches to include repair as a meaningful mode of “making” in early engineering education. The findings suggest that structured repair provides a developmentally appropriate and emotionally resonant entry point for engineering learning, supporting the development of technical skills, problem-solving capabilities, and emotional resilience in early childhood. The study contributes to the growing field of early engineering education by providing empirically grounded insights into how emotionally engaging, hands-on experiences can bridge cognitive, affective, and practical dimensions of STEM learning.
Peleg et al. (Sat,) studied this question.