Puzzles have a profound impact on the development of 3-year-old kids. Many children feel drawn towards different kinds of puzzles because it stimulates the mind and also provides entertainment with the satisfaction of achievement. Children, especially around the tender age of 3, can receive huge developmental benefits from puzzles.
Puzzles help develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills. 3-year-old kids, therefore, understand pattern recognition, work on their memory and fine motor skills. Depending on the different kinds of puzzles that your 3-year-old can grow their cognitive skills with, we’ve compiled a list of the best puzzles for the job.
1. Cubelelo Magnetic Blocks (7 Pieces)
The Cubelelo Magnetic Blocks are educational toys for kids that essentially are blocks embedded with magnets. Each block is designed carefully to be child-friendly. The blocks are not heavy and have smooth edges, just so your kids don’t get hurt while playing with them. These puzzles do not require any parental assistance. Children can explore creating any shapes like cars, robots, rockets, buildings, towers, geometrical shapes, etc. These puzzles help children build and design to their heart’s content. The Cubelelo Magnetic Blocks are powerful learning tools as they help improve mental and physical skills, seeing to it your child develops multiple intelligence at an early stage.
2. Magic Snake
The magic snake is a kind of a fidget toy. It inspires the imagination of your child as it continuously enhances hand and eye coordination. Your child can twist the magic snake around and create as many shapes as they can – snake, horse, ball, cat, camels, stairs, etc. The blocks can be rotated at angles of 90, 190, and 270 degrees to create geometric shapes and more. As there is no “right” solution to this puzzle, your child challenges the mind and gives room for creativity.
3. Locking Puzzles
The locking puzzles help toddlers recognize pieces and match them where they belong. The pieces have smooth edges and large shapes, which make them safe and gentle for little hands. In a scrambled state it might feel like none of the pieces fit together. However, since there are no guidelines to solving the locking puzzles, children are encouraged to make their own solutions and put all the pieces together quickly. Challenge your children to find different solving paths by dismantling the puzzle. Since these locking puzzles do not come with knobs or bolts, they demand more precise focus that will challenge your child’s motor skills in a tactile manner.
4. Pyraminx
The Pyraminx is a twisty puzzle for kids that aims at intelligence development. The Pyraminx needs to be twisted and moved around so that each of the four faces have only one colour. The puzzle promotes a child’s spatial awareness and also encourages creativity. It is a great medium for improving patience, and mental skills. Solving the Pyraminx requires sheer focus and offers hours of challenging and fun puzzle play!
5. Rainbow Ball
The Rainbow Ball is also a magic cube puzzle. It is a mind-challenging puzzle that exercises the child’s brain and improves memory. Click here to read more about the benefits solving puzzle for your brain.
The rainbow ball is in the shape of a ball with 12 holes and 11 colourful balls insides. These balls can be fidgeted with and moved from one hole to another. As the coloured balls need to be placed exactly at the hole of their respective colour, your child also understands to differentiate between colours. The rainbow ball is perfect for testing your child’s imagination, mental skills and developing patience.
6. Fruit Shape Puzzles
Fruit shaped puzzles help develop the skill of shape recognition in children. The goal of these puzzles is to help your child complete the shape by fitting in the right pieces. As your child solves the puzzle, they will start recognizing which pieces fit into exactly which places to achieve the goals. Think of it as a conventional board puzzle, but in 3D!
7. Figure shaped
The figure-shaped puzzles come in a whole range of themes like animals. It increases the visual-spatial awareness among kids and a deeper understanding of these themes. All children learn differently, and solving these puzzles prove to be a helpful source in grasping and understanding approaches in achieving the goal.
8. Sliding Puzzles
Sliding Puzzles are a great way to keep your 3-year-old engaged. To solve the puzzle, the pieces are to be pushed around until the picture is complete. The puzzles are numbered so that the child understands the right order of the puzzle. Children learning about numbers can now implement their understanding of the topic through the sliding puzzle. To make the game more fun and entertaining, you can even give certain values or knowledge points as a reward to your child for solving the puzzle correctly.
Conclusion
If your child loves puzzles, then you should consider capitalizing on that. All the puzzles mentioned can be purchased from the official Cubelelo website. The accomplishment of achieving a goal brings so much satisfaction to children. Overcoming the challenges of solving different types of puzzles leaves children with a sense of pride, thereby boosting their self-confidence and self-esteem as they prepare for other challenges in life. We have listed the brain teaser puzzles for adults in this article, click here to read more.
