Our Love of Floor Puzzles 💕

I recently attended an online workshop to assist parents during the pandemic and especially during periods of lockdown. The workshop was very useful. Some of the tips that really made sense to me were to:

Maintain the magic in the everyday.
Maintain or establish a daily and weekly rhythm.
Make weekends look and feel different from the weekdays.
Think about service and how we can serve our community.

It was also suggested that puzzles might be a fun family activity. Puzzles can be reassuring, they offer certainty in uncertain times. Each piece of the puzzle fits perfectly, all the pieces come together to form a whole and there is a defined start and finish. Puzzles can bring family members together.

My older children like puzzles but to involve my youngest child I decided to get out some of our favourite floor puzzles. I like to use floor puzzles with young children as the pieces are so large, they are easier for young children to put together and they promote movement, children need to move to complete the puzzles.

Floor puzzles:

promote teamwork - children can work together to achieve a common goal.
are self-correcting
have a defined start and finish - are predictable and offer certainty.
can be satisfying - children can feel a sense of pride and satisfaction when they have completed the puzzle.
promote concentration - and can have a calming effect.
can help develop
- visual discrimination
- cognitive development
- hand-eye coordination
- concentration
- problem-solving skills

One of our favourite floor puzzles is this beautiful Whale Floor Puzzle (c/o Modern Teaching Aids). It has 48 pieces, it is recommended for 3yrs+ however, my three-year-old likes his brothers to help him with it.

I can see a small smile every time a puzzle piece falls into place.

Puzzles, games - anything that promotes teamwork is a winner!

Wow, this is lovely 🐋❤️. If you like this Whale Floor Puzzle, have a look at this gorgeous 18 piece Turtle Floor Puzzle.

Another one of our favourites is this Skeleton Floor Puzzle. Otto is able to do it independently. We've had this for many years and it still looks fantastic. One side has the skeleton and the other side has the names of the bones.