As adults, we likely look at puzzles as something fun. Doing puzzles is a leisurely hobby we can chip away at over the course of hours, ultimately giving us the satisfaction of having completed something complicated but manageable. If only the rest of life had such a clear beginning and ending, right?
For children, puzzles are an entirely different ballgame. While they can be fun and satisfying for little ones, they also serve developmental purposes that range from the physical to the cognitive. Here at Hollow Woodworks, we sell some truly great puzzles that not only look great and last for a lifetime, but also help to make children smarter and better developed little humans.
The following are a few reasons why puzzles are great for a child’s development:
#1 Puzzles Are Excellent Educational Tools
In many cases, puzzles are children’s first intimate introduction to many different things, from numbers to letters to animals to maps. Our USA map puzzle, for instance, can help children learn where their home state is located while also learning the shapes and names of other states in the country. Alphabet puzzles teach children their letters, while puzzles with animals can teach children the names of animals they will eventually see in the real world. It’s a great way to introduce kids to the building blocks of the world around them.
#2 Puzzles Improve Concentration and Memory
As is the case with adults, puzzles inevitably improve a child’s memory and concentration. While fitting certain pieces together—sometimes successfully, sometimes not—they have to remember what leftover piece may have gone where, and they have to maintain concentration long enough to complete the entire puzzle. In a world where kids have attention deficits because of too much screen time, puzzles can be the perfect respite from overstimulation.
#3 Puzzles Help Develop Problem-Solving Skills
Children must learn that the world will not always come to them easily, and when that happens, they have to have some coping mechanisms for how to think logically and solve their own problems. Puzzles are among the easiest things children can do early in their lives to learn these problem-solving skills.
#4 Puzzles Teach Children Patience and Grit
And because puzzles aren’t easy, it’s reasonable to imagine a world in which children simply give up and discontinue their work rather than complete it all the way to the end. Adults who do this don’t often experience much personal and/or professional success, so ingraining children with the concepts of patience and grit early on are the sorts of things they will be able to use later when their lives get hard or instant gratification isn’t always available to them.
Knowing all this, parents absolutely should invest in high-quality wood puzzles for their children. All kids develop at their own pace, but puzzles can help children’s brains develop more quickly. The products we sell here at Hollow Woodworks, from the personalized name puzzle to our alphabet puzzles, all encourage child development in ways other toys simply can’t.