17 fun puzzles that help kids develop cognitive and motor skills, according to a developmental psychologist
Alyson Aladro
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- Wooden and jigsaw puzzles are valuable tools for developing young children's cognitive, motor, and social skills.
Puzzles are a great tool for development. Even from infancy, encouraging tasks that focus on learning and problem-solving can give babies the confidence they need to extend their knowledge to other tasks and experiences, like self-regulating their emotions when confronted with a new challenge. As babies become toddlers and then school-age, they establish more techniques and behaviors that facilitate learning as they go, but it all begins with that solid base.
Also on the shortlist of benefits: building fine motor skills; bolstering other aspects of emotional development like perseverance; learning about different people, places, or things; and encouraging quality time with family at home. Personally, I enjoy watching my 5-year-old show her 2-year-old brother her tried-and-true strategies for solving puzzles, and seeing him give it a shot, too, or try something new on his own.
After raiding my own toy chest and researching some new, creative options for my own kids, I compiled this list of puzzles for babies to 8-year-olds.
Here are 17 fun wooden and jigsaw puzzles for kids:A puzzle just for them
When my big kid was born, a something-removed cousin gave her a personalized name puzzle stool. It surprised me as one of the more utilized early gifts we got. Much like this personalized puzzle, each letter of her name is a large block that is a unique color. For the first year or two, it was a fun way to teach her her name, but she still gets a kick out of dumping out the letters and putting them back in (over and over and over again).
Recommended ages: 0 to 3 years old
A puzzle with stimulating, simple shapes
Starting your child off with a puzzle that has simple but repetitive themes can bolster their language development — perfect for a stage of development that typically includes big vocabulary bursts. Babies and toddlers use repeated color and shape words to learn more about other objects that share the same characteristics. The shape slots and handles for the pieces make it easy to learn how to place the pieces in, which is great for developing visual-spatial awareness and fine motor skills.
Recommended ages: 1 year and up
2-D building blocks for their favorite animals
When your little one is ready, they can get to work on puzzles that use multiple pieces to create one familiar shape, like Quokka's pack of Animals. Because the image of the animal is not printed inside the cutout, starting the puzzle may be somewhat challenging, especially for the younger crowd. This may discourage them at first, but use this opportunity to work with them on emotion regulation and perseverance.
Recommended ages: 1 to 3 years
A puzzle with graspable pieces for little hands
Chunky puzzle pieces are wonderful for tiny hands and minds. Toddlers can get a good grip on them, they easily fit in place, and usually — like with these puzzles from Eliiti — the matching picture is right on the board where the piece should go. These are great practice for hand-eye coordination, as well as another opportunity to work on your little one's vocabulary for a range of subjects, like farm animals, sea animals, and transportation.
Recommended ages: 2 to 4 years
A busy little town puzzle
This floor puzzle offers a lot of vocabulary work, using simple shapes and cute animals throughout the design. It also packs a little extra for the kids: a bonus find-it activity inside the box. This means a little extra work for your child; however, working on these projects with your child likely means they will be able to focus on it longer. It also gives them the chance to hone certain skills, like problem-solving, and benefit from spending quality time with you.
Recommended ages: 2 years and up
A puzzle that features a good traffic jam
If I know anything about 3 year olds, it's that they love vehicles. True to form, when we got this puzzle two years ago for my now-5-year-old, she was obsessed. It has really big, bold shapes and colors which helped capture her attention in the beginning, and has held it over the years. Now she helps her 2-year-old brother attempt to put it together, showing him the special stripes along the top and bottom that help you determine where the edge pieces go.
Recommended ages: 3 to 5 years
Six different Eric Carle puzzles in one
I love a toy that multitasks. The What Do You See? Squares Puzzle has three sets of double-sided pieces, resulting in six separate puzzles, each featuring a different beloved Eric Carle animal. The pieces are square, not typical jigsaw-shaped, and without an obvious "fit" it can get tricky for little ones to figure out the correct placement. They may not like this at first, but have no fear! There are illustrations on the back of the box that show each completed puzzle for reference. The puzzles are also self-contained in a shallow tray that perfectly fits the nine pieces.
Recommended ages: 3 to 6 years
Four puzzles with a built-in guide
The four puzzles in Melissa & Doug's puzzle box are cute and fun for little kids — 12 pieces is well within reach for 3-year-olds and up. As a way to keep the puzzles separated, each one has a uniform shape stamped on the back of its respective pieces, like a small triangle on each piece of the fire truck puzzle. This is a great feature because kids have a way to sift through unusable pieces while they work, or get them all out of the way to begin with. Pro tip: Use this sorting tool as an opportunity to encourage them to help clean up.
Recommended ages: 3 to 6 years
A basic puzzle with lots of room for imagination
Puzzles for kids 4 years and older get a little more involved, which I think makes them a little more fun. Like many floor puzzles, Day at the Aquarium is a standard 18 inches by 24 inches, but it includes 48 pieces. I like this particular one because it's a fun scene without being unnecessarily challenging. The tanks create little compartmentalized areas that are easy to solve one at a time, and it's fun to speculate about the actions and lives of the aquarium visitors with your kids.
Recommended ages: 4 years and up
A learning tool that serves two purposes
Self-correcting puzzles are a valuable early tool for teaching kids how jigsaw puzzles work. Many of them, including these number puzzles from Melissa & Doug, also perform double duty by serving as vocabulary or flashcards full of visual representations. For example, having a numeral 3 next to an image of three bananas can help kids encode and recall that information while they learn to count, or later, for basic math.
Recommended ages: 4 years and up
A puzzle that centers Black children
Puzzle Huddle creates puzzles that center children of color engaging in a range of future occupations, like pilot, chemist, and doctor. Diverse representation in toys and games is typically lacking, but that only highlights how important it is to support the companies that are moving us forward. Luckily for all of us, this company offers puzzles in four different sizes, so anyone from 2 to 6 years and up can find one for them.
Recommended ages: 4 to 6 years
An informative map with lots of good challenges
For a heavily educational puzzle, Mudpuppy presents its map of the United States. The ocean and neighboring countries are more typical jigsaw pieces, and the states pieces are cut along their real-life borders. This puzzle is very engaging because kids work with inconsistent shapes and sizes, state names and capitols, and imagery for popular representations of each state (a wedge of cheese in Wisconsin, for example). This one is time-consuming and very rewarding.
Recommended ages: 5 years and up
A puzzle that encourages them to stop and smell the fruits
Is there anything more fun than a product unexpectedly smelling like fruit when you're a kid? Don't get me started on scented markers. This puzzle is just downright fun and incorporates some light sensory stimulation, so if you need a solo or family activity that will eat up some time, this might be a good place to start.
Recommended ages: 5 years and up
Cats in cute tin cans
Young cat lovers, rejoice! Renowned feline artists Frida Catlo, Yayoi Catsama, and others are featured in this set of small puzzles (sold separately). Each is 100 pieces, but the end result measures only 12 inches by 12 inches. They also come stored in a small tin can.
Recommended ages: 6 years and up
Two-sided puzzles for animal pairings
Mudpuppy's line of double-sided puzzles is ideal for kids around first grade and older because you can maximize the opportunity to learn about different categories. There are semi-unrelated species like bugs and birds, obvious pairings like cats and dogs, and related subjects like dinosaurs and their fossils. Animal Kingdom features contrasting imagery with multicolored animals on one side and exclusively black and white ones on the other.
Recommended ages: 6 years and up
A new take on the classic puzzle style
It's good to find puzzles that are familiar but introduce a unique challenge, like a dynamic, multidimensional octopus puzzle instead of the typical square, flat, illustrated scene. Not only does it force kids to use their established fine-motor and visual-spatial skills in new ways, but it also encourages them to problem-solve more creatively in other aspects of their life. Qualities like grit and perseverance are an important part of well-rounded child development, and there is no better place to build on that than from the safety of a fun family project.
Recommended ages: 7 years and up
A handmade puzzle that features important history lessons
Again, making space for diversity and representation in toys and games is essential. From a developmental perspective, consider the importance of exposure to all kinds of people and events and how it makes our children more socially aware, responsible, and empathic. A puzzle that features contemporary role models like Barack and Michelle Obama and historic social reformers like Frederick Douglass is a great way to encourage you and your family to talk and learn about Black history.
Recommended ages: 8 years and up
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