When I was a little girl, I remember playing with simple wooden puzzles in the nursery department of our church. They were so sturdy and durable that I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re still there!
When my daughters were young, they enjoyed doing puzzles as well. Encouraging small children to play with puzzles is a great way to help develop their fine motor skills.
For toddlers, my favorites are still basic wooden puzzles. The ones I played with didn’t have the fancy knobs like this cute farm farm animals puzzle
As children get a bit older, they can move on to puzzles with a small number of interlocking pieces that fit into a tray. These can be found in wood as well as cardboard and often have the outline of the pieces printed on the tray to assist the child in placing the pieces correctly.
Foam or crepe rubber puzzles add a different element to the process because of their texture. We owned foam puzzles that had you place alphabet letters
Large floor puzzles are another option to try. Puzzles can be found in almost any theme that interests your child from dinosaurs to firetrucks, princesses to ballerinas and many other popular characters. While you’re developing those fine motor skills, you can also use the puzzles for educational purposes by doing a world map puzzle or one that shows the fifty United States.
Now that my girls are six and eight, they can do most one hundred piece puzzles by themselves, although it may take them a little while. I’m thinking that a fun family activity might be working a three hundred piece puzzle together, although I don’t know if we could accomplish it all at one sitting!
Do your children enjoy working puzzles? Have you tried doing larger ones together as a family? Let me know what you think!
Link to puzzle is an Amazon affiliate link.
My kids don't do puzzles a whole lot but every once and a while they will. I will have to remember to pull them out if they get restless this winter.
We do enjoy doing 500 piece ones together as a family. We don't do that often either put it is fun. My husband and I enjoy visiting well putting it together.
The wooden puzzles were always popular in our house, and at our church creche too.
One advantage is you always know at a glance that you have all the pieces before you put it away!