Estimated reading time: 4 mins

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Children love puzzles in early childhood. It’s not only fun, but it also acts as a great source of development in early childhood. With babies you can start with peg puzzles with simple shapes. They can then move onto real world objects and then they can move onto jigsaw puzzles as they get older.

There are 3 core benefits of puzzles in early childhood development, which are:

1) Physical skills

  • Hand-eye coordination — your child will develop the relationship between what their hands do and what they see with their eyes
  • Gross motor skills — larger puzzle pieces helps to enhance your child’s large movements
  • Fine motor skills — better handwriting skills can be created due to your child’s movement of their fingers to get a puzzle piece in exactly the right spot.

2) Cognitive skills

  • Shape recognition — the first puzzles your child should use are simple shapes, such as triangle, squares and circles
  • Visual memory — Your child has to remember the shape of pieces that don’t fit when they first try
  • Brain development and problem solving —Your child uses critical thinking skills to solve the puzzle they’re doing.

3) Emotional skills

  • Setting goals — your child will begin to create their own series of goals to solve the puzzle. Such as starting with a certain puzzle piece first
  • Patience — puzzles will help your child practice patience and slowly work through the puzzle before finishing.

These three basic skills are the building blocks for a well-rounded child and builds upon their problem-solving skills, the foundation for maths.

In addition to these three basics, if your child does a puzzle with a friend or family member, this will allow them to grow their social skills.  

We have launched a new solar system puzzle 🎉 Emmanuel and Sienna zoom into space in our NEW solar system wooden puzzle. This puzzle is beautifully designed by us and handmade in the UK, using eco-friendly FSC wood. It also includes a FREE fact sheet 🚀 You can buy our puzzle here.


The solar system for kids is a place of great fun and mystery – whether it’s their fascination with the stars, planets or astronauts, they love space! It’s also STEM focused as it introduces children to science 🪐

Natalie

Little Scholars Playground
info@littlescholarsplayground.com

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About the author

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Natalie is the co-founder and illustrator at Little Scholars Playground. She is passionate about literacy, learning, illustrating, black women in STEM and Montessori.


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