What if young students could explore science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) subjects through autonomous and creative play? What if children were treated like artists and encouraged to formulate and explore their thoughts, theories, and ideas starting at the age of 4? What if educators relinquished their traditional roles as instructors and assumed more guiding roles as facilitators? This article explores STEAM and the joy early childhood students experienced from creativity, autonomy, and play through forest kindergartens, a child-centered approach found in Europe. Child-centered approaches to learning parallel real-world techniques used by artists, scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. Because no career choice or discipline is completely isolated or siloed, the interdependence among the STEAM subjects mirrors real-life scenarios. In essence, by providing a variety of possibilities in each learning experience, STEAM education can inspire a sense of joy, engagement, and eagerness to learn in students.