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The experience of matching shapes and colours can be challenging yet rewarding. It can build your tamaiti | child's confidence, boost self-esteem, and can offer a sense of accomplishment.
Doing puzzles at home#
Set up a dedicated area or table for puzzles to create a comfortable and inviting space for your tamaiti. Keep it tidy and organised. Your tamaiti can work on the floor or at a low table.
Display puzzles so they are easy to reach, and your tamaiti can choose puzzles on their own.
Set up puzzles so they can be done independently or cooperatively with someone else. Taking photos of completed puzzles and keeping these in a clear file or laminating them can help your tamaiti solve the puzzle they are working on.
Ideas for puzzles
Provide a range of puzzles with varying levels of difficulty, cultural symbols and images. They might have different themes to suit the interests and abilities of your tamaiti including:
- 1 piece to multi-piece
- from simple to difficult to challenging
- showing a range of subjects and patterns.
Learning with puzzles#
Puzzle play can help tamariki | children to:
- practise problem-solving, spatial awareness, and logical thinking
- develop hand-eye coordination and dexterity
- learn to reason and solve problems
- learn to persevere, deal with frustration, and be patient.
Support your tamaiti#
You can support your tamaiti by:
- taking an interest and following their lead
- allowing them to do puzzles at their own pace
- helping your tamaiti notice shapes, colours, and patterns
- providing prompts and questions to encourage critical thinking and problem solving
- talking tamariki through their frustrations and encouraging them to persist.
