Free Shipping
on orders over $35 in Canada
on orders over $35 in Canada
Piecing It All Together: The Educational Benefits of Puzzles for Kids
Who doesn’t love puzzles? If you didn’t know already, January is National Puzzle Month, and because of this, we decided to write this blog post about the wonderful educational benefits that puzzles provide for kids. Puzzles are not only fun for kids, but they can also act as a great educational tool. They can give kids an opportunity to develop their cognitive, fine motor, and social-emotional skills.
Cognitive Skills
Puzzles can help develop a child’s cognitive skills since critical thinking and problem solving is needed to figure out how to solve the puzzle. Children are given a collection of visual information (i.e. the various shapes, sizes, and colours of the puzzle pieces) and they have to make connections using this information to determine how each piece fits together. As kids use and develop their critical thinking and problem-solving abilities by focusing on completing the puzzle, they are also helping to strengthen their attention span in the process.
Fine Motor Skills
A puzzle is a great way for children to practice and develop their fine motor skills. Fine motor skills involve kids learning how to use the small muscles in their hands and fingers to complete certain tasks. A puzzle can help with this development since it is an activity that requires kids to use their hands and fingers to pick up, turn, and place the puzzle pieces in a specific way in order for the pieces to fit together correctly.
Social-Emotional Skills
Puzzles are designed to be put together one piece at a time, which is why they can be a great activity for kids to learn and develop their ability to be patient and persistent. Puzzles can sometimes take a while to complete, depending on the complexity and the number of pieces in the puzzle, which is why it can be a good tool to help children strengthen their level of patience. A puzzle cannot solve itself; it requires children to think critically in order to piece it all together, which can take time to do. A puzzle can also help a child learn to be more persistent as it may take two, three, four, or more tries before they can find the right spot for it in the puzzle. At first, children might get angry or frustrated when they can’t find where a specific piece goes, but if they keep on trying, they will eventually solve it which can help them learn how to be persistent.
Play is one of the best ways kids can learn because it makes learning fun! A puzzle should not just be valued for its educational benefits, but it should also be regarded as a fun activity that kids can enjoy doing. Puzzles can also be a great way for families to spend time learning and having fun together. Children are not the only ones who can benefit from doing puzzles; adults can too!
Puzzles can be enjoyed by kids of all ages, so we came up with a list of some puzzles designed for each age group:
Babies & Toddlers
Preschoolers
School-Age Kids
Leave a comment