11 Apr Do you encourage puzzle play?
Puzzles are a great way to have fun, and they teach many skills through play.
Having a puzzle tray in your home, perhaps with a photograph of your child, or a picture that your child has chosen from a magazine and backed onto cardboard, is a great way to start. Cut up the photograph or picture into as many pieces that they can master comfortably. Note: Increase the number of pieces as your child’s skill increases.
Your child will be interested in the puzzle. Why? Because it’s a photograph of themselves, or perhaps of someone they love, or it’s a picture that they got to choose.
Encourage them to complete the puzzle, and as the number of puzzle pieces increase as their skillset increases, remember we can complete the puzzle tomorrow, or even in the days to come.
Why?
Completion of task is very important skill, which we want to encourage, hence we build puzzles on a tray, so I don’t have to pack up the unfinished puzzle because it is bedtime, supper time, etc. We place the tray in a safe place until we take t out and complete next time.
A few of the basic skills building puzzles encourage and improve include:
- Problem solving
- Hand eye coordination
- Fine motor development
- Self esteem
- Social skills
- Patience
- Concentration
- Goal setting
- Shape recognition
What I know is that we can learn through play together and puzzles are a great way to do that.