How to Select Educational Puzzles for Your Child

Options abound for finding educational puzzles for your child. What makes these puzzles educational is their ability to stimulate visual coordination, patience, organizational skills and spatial categorization. These puzzles also boost a child's confidence in solving problems and promote her or his sense of personal accomplishment. The most important thing to remember when selecting an educational puzzle is to keep fun in mind. Not only should the puzzle itself be fun to put together, but the process of selection should be fun as well.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Mail-order or online puzzle catalog

How to Choose An Educational Puzzle

1. Determine ahead of time how much you want to spend on your puzzle. Prices of puzzles can vary from inexpensive to expensive, so know how much you want to spend before you select a particular puzzle.

2. Determine the appropriate puzzle size based on your child's age. Puzzle World and Kaplan Toys have guides to help you determine how many puzzle pieces your child will likely be able to handle (see Resources below).

3. Decide whether the puzzle will have a theme, such as a holiday, religious symbol or picture you want to use as a visual stimulus.

4. Make sure the puzzle is child-safe. Puzzle pieces should neither be small enough to swallow nor too sharp to cause injury or damage.

5. Show the child the puzzle to gauge his interest in it. The puzzle should be eye-catching and attractive enough for him to receive education and stimulation from the puzzle.

6. Determine whether the puzzle encourages interaction between you and your child.

7. Use a question or learning objective to guide play with the puzzle.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to select educational puzzles that depict some element of real life or those that give your child a view of real people. These types of puzzles may show how a fire engine works or what the inside of a human body looks like.
• Puzzles come in different formats. You can select the typical cut-out table-top puzzle, one for the floor or a wall puzzle.
• Do not let cost of the puzzle be the primary factor in selection. Just because a puzzle is expensive does not mean it has educational value.
• Watch out for small pieces or sharp objects to avoid injury.

Resources

• Go to Puzzle World to find age-appropriate puzzles
• Find puzzles at Kaplan Toys