Nowadays, most children spend a lot of time learning from television. The lessons they learn are not always what we would like. The thing to keep in mind is that our children can also learn from other influences or games. The advantage for ‘other influences’ is that we usually have more control over what they are learning. Using puzzles for education is still a great way to help your child develop a number of skills.

When it comes to putting together a puzzle, children have so much fun with them that they don’t even know that they are also learning with these toys. The puzzles work on depth perception, small motor skills, and patience or any variety of skills depending on the type of puzzle you select.

What kind of puzzle should I buy my child?

All types of puzzles are good for learning. When you think of puzzles, you probably only think of the kind that comes in a box with 500 or 1,000 pieces. This is just one type of puzzle. There are many puzzle books to choose from, such as crossword puzzles or seek and find, Sudoku puzzles, and even reading puzzles. If they don’t have the type of puzzles you’re looking for, you can always make your own. Fictional books exist today on almost every subject, including how to design and create your own puzzles. These include math puzzles, reading puzzles, language arts puzzles, music puzzles, and many more.

How children learn with puzzles:

Puzzles will help keep your child from feeling discouraged as they encourage him to want to learn through play. Children always learn best through play. With puzzles, they can learn to play together or entertain themselves. Puzzles help teach creativity to children. As she gets older, your child will be able to use the creativity she has learned so she doesn’t get bored.

Puzzles can teach your child hand-eye coordination and help develop their memory. They will also help them learn to solve more complex problems.

Some types of educational puzzles:

When you start looking at the puzzles, you will find that there are math puzzles that include basic math, addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Math problems are designed to help inspire the child to keep learning.

There are reading puzzles that teach the basic reading skill they need. These puzzles encourage children to put words together to form a sentence or even a story. There are puzzles designed to compete against the clock. These are for the more inventive or competitive child. With this type of puzzle they run to try to beat the time of the last puzzle they put together.

There are matching puzzles, pictures and matching words. These are designed for younger children just starting out with puzzles. There are only a few matches on a page to help encourage them and allow them to find the correct answer more easily.

There are toys that transform to create a different toy. Although these puzzles are usually more complex, they are still puzzles. Imagination, patience, small muscle dexterity, and creativity are challenged with transforming toys.

Create your own puzzles:

Puzzles can be made from anything, including cardboard. You can make puzzles from old pictures, draw your own pictures, or create pictures from many types of materials, including magazines, cut-out colored shapes. You can glue pieces to cardboard to make them last longer, or just use a sheet of paper. Remember not to make the puzzle so hard that you get discouraged.

Learning is not supposed to be a frustrating experience. Toy manufacturers have discovered that educational toys need to be designed to be fun to play. Try to keep this in mind when choosing educational toys for your child. If he seems to be frustrated by a toy, put it away for a while before trying again. A frustrated child will not benefit from continuing to be frustrated.