It’s raining again. While it’s great for the garden and topping up the local reservoirs, when the kids are home it can create a dilemma. Outside play is out of the question as you don’t want them exposed to the cold, so how do you keep the kids busy when they are confined to the house?
You can try sitting them in front of a mind numbing TV show or computer game. This may keep them quiet and possibly from stirring each other up for a while but why not challenge them with puzzles to keep them learning while having fun.
Get their Brain Firing with Puzzle Play
There is no doubt about it, puzzles are fun to do alone or share with the family. They can be relaxing and help whittle away hours when you don’t feel like doing anything more productive.
Did you know that puzzles are an effective way of helping your kids to grow different parts of their brain? The part of the mind stimulated depends on the type of puzzle so if you want to engage your child’s mind on an otherwise boring day keep a range of puzzle games for kids handy.
Types of Puzzle Games for Kids
So where do you start when you are looking for puzzles for your happy brood? One of the key things you need to consider is how old they are. Find puzzles that fit their age, if they are too challenged they will get frustrated and give up.
Here are some options that you may want to try:
- Kids Wooden Puzzles
these take on a variety of forms and can be fun at any age. Balancing animals, matching dominos or stacking rings are just a few of the options. Help your child recognise shapes and patterns and how they relate to each other;
- Educational Peg puzzles
square peg in the round hole? Use these puzzles to help your child develop manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination by matching items to their correct space;
- Jigsaw Puzzles
a favourite for all ages, spend hours giggling as you search for pieces with your kids and work out where they fit. From a few pieces to thousands,flat or 3D, jigsaw puzzles guarantee hours and hours of rainy day fun.
- Logic Puzzles for Kids
challenge your kids with mind-twisting logic puzzles that will keep them entertained. Who did it, how did they escape or how fast was that train going? Help your children work out what happened from a supplied set of clues;
- Kids crosswords
encourage them to develop their language skills. Add a time factor or do it with them to make the challenge more interesting. Crossword puzzles promote thinking association and your child can learn new words and meanings.
Puzzle Family Fun
Puzzles are not just for the little ones. It’s a great way to share learning time with your kids while it’s pouring outside and help them to understand the logic behind the puzzles.
While online puzzles have their place there, there is real benefit for your child to physically interact with puzzles in their hands. They spend enough time in front of media screens and this can be time for them to get back to some of the essential basics that were so good for us when we were young.
Have a look at some of our age appropriate puzzles here so you can keep your children entertained on the next rainy day.
