Did you know that January 29th is National Puzzle Day? I love puzzles! I snapped the picture above on New Year’s Day, at the start of our 1000-piece challenge. Puzzles give your brain a fantastic workout- making them extremely beneficial (for both kids and adults) and SO satisfying to complete!
Cognitive Skills: When kids work on a puzzle, they practice identifying colors, letters, and develop spatial awareness. Puzzles also encourage kids to work on their memory.
Hand-Eye Coordination: Getting the pieces to fit just right requires this valuable skill!
Fine Motor Development: Picking up and placing puzzle pieces benefits fine motor development immensely. The smaller the pieces get, the greater the challenge!
Problem Solving: You have one goal in sight when doing a puzzle. This requires children to think logically and come up with a plan to complete the task!
Social Skills: Working in a group to complete a puzzle encourages kids to practice sharing, taking turns, and working in a team to achieve a common goal.
In honor of today’s holiday, I put together a list of some of my favorite puzzles for toddlers, big kids, and adults. The toddler puzzles by Melissa & Doug have withstood years of play in our playspace and music studio’s lobby- I highly recommend them. As kids get older, increase the number of pieces and decrease the piece size to keep up the brain-boosting power of puzzles!
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