Our family had never worked a puzzle together. My husband and I thought a 300 piece puzzle would be easy, but it was a little bit more of a challenge than we anticipated. That made it even better. There was a lot of learning going on at that table last night and it went beyond just visual acuity and spacial relationships. She was learning how to tackle a project by breaking it down into smaller pieces (do the frame first), sticking with something even though it’s frustrating, and that tasks often get easier over time.

I was reminded that my daughter loved puzzles when she was little. I thought about the wooden Melissa & Doug animal puzzle that she loved as a toddler. According to Teach.com, puzzles like that developed physical skills like fine motor control and hand-eye coordination.  It also helped her cognitively in terms of learning shapes and remembering what goes where, as well as some problem solving skills.  Also, she learned how to do a great lion roar.

Then I remember the giant floor puzzles that took up our entire city apartment, especially the 50 state floor puzzle, that was fun in the early elementary years.

Bigger puzzle meant bigger concepts, like geography and more goal setting and planning. Patience is a virtue, and one that puzzles help develop.

That was certainly true as we embarked on  our first jigsaw puzzle.

She didn’t have a blast right off the bat. She was rather overwhelmed by all the tiny pieces. This was a great chance to talk about making the challenge seem more manageable by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable tasks. I think she learned a little bit about persistence.

Once she got into, we made good progress and had a few laughs, especially my request to find a fleshy piece and a  few other inartfully phrased request, until my daughter announced, “It got late really fast!”  Jigsaw puzzles are beneficial because they require focus, and it looks like my tween got that. She was plugging in a few pieces this morning and was almost late for school. Here’s where she left it this morning.

Jigsaw puzzles also require the assembler to use both the left and right parts of the brain, which is a big plus. “While working on jigsaw puzzles, it has been studied that there exists continuous activity thought the brain involving all the cells and parts of the brain. This intense activity works to exercise the brain cells and thereby activate them and increase their efficiency and capacity too,” according to the article “Why Jigsaw Puzzles Are Good For the Brain” on Social-Psychiatry.com.

I think that we are new converts and may need to try out a 750 piece option next, especially now that we know how beneficial they can be.

Are you a puzzle fan?

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