National Puzzle Day was January 29 and we didn’t want to miss a chance to talk about all the benefits of building puzzles with young children! So break out those puzzles and start building to support children’s development in all areas!
Benefits of puzzle building:
Children gain finger strength, perseverance, and problem-solving skills through simple jigsaw puzzles.
Playing with puzzles gets kids to look at the pictures more carefully, from left to right and from top to bottom. Children may begin to recognize visual similarities and differences by doing this.
Planning, idea testing, and problem-solving skills are all enhanced by solving puzzles. Children must remember shapes, colors, positions, and strategies in order to complete a puzzle.
Children may also learn to accept challenges, overcome obstacles, and deal with frustrations by completing a puzzle.
Tips for introducing puzzles to young children:
- Start easy. Don’t head straight to the 5,000-piece puzzle, pick something suitable to children's abilities.
- Talk with the children about the picture on the puzzle before taking the pieces out.
- Take out the puzzle pieces and place them ‘face up’.
- Find the corner and edge pieces first and put them in place.
- Look for pieces according to the shapes needed to fit a space.
- Flip and turn pieces, match colors, and look for ‘parts’ of pictures or lines that might go together.
Looking to incorporate more manipulatives or math into your program? Consider these courses from H&H Child Care Training Center to enhance your lesson plans.