How To Make Wooden Puzzles For Toddlers

Children are always in crave for new and interesting play objects. As nowadays children are spending more indoor time than any outdoor play then it’s very common if they are getting bored of their conventional old ways of playtime. Toys like a battery robot or a remote control car do not come with a cheap price tag.

The batteries which you will buy at first would always run out much faster than you would anticipate. Thus the additional cost of buying batteries in a few days will result in frustration for you. On the other hand, toys which you can make yourself will cost very little. Wooden toys or puzzles do not get damaged easily and will stay around for years in good shape.

Here you will get to learn how to make wooden puzzles for toddlers and many more quick facts on wooden puzzles. Kids nowadays have a huge variety of toys to choose from. Cars, planes, robots, punching bags, backyard slides, and even much more with a list incredibly lengthy.

When your children will know that you are making something just for them to play with, their eyes would have a different shine. They would feel more attached to you and curious to find the puzzles you would make with all the tools. Certain kinds of wooden puzzles will keep them occupied and even help in the development of the intelligence of their mind.

How puzzles help in the child’s developments

When you will introduce the child to the wooden or jigsaw puzzles at first you might feel bad for them for not being able to put pieces together but parents need to hold their horses. This is the phase where your child’s several skills would develop. Through the struggle, they would enhance their skills and would understand the simple game of puzzles which is also a great teacher in comparison to other games. The benefits and enhancements from puzzles are mentioned in brief.

• Concentration and the right puzzle

One thing parents definitely agree on is that all their children have a hard time focusing. This is very natural for the curious little minds to jump from one thing to another within just a few minutes. According to experts, the usual concentration of your toddler would be about 2 to 5 times their age. So for example, if your kid is three years old then you would notice a concentration span of about six to fifteen minutes.

Puzzles can help a lot in a substantial increase in the child’s concentration. The way puzzle pieces engage with your child’s mind would help in maintaining focus without getting distracted. In puzzles, the need to focus on each piece with the open spaces of fittings does the trick of maintaining focus.

But you need to choose the right fit of the puzzle according to the child’s age. If you choose too easy or too tuff the ability improvements won’t take place. For the one-year-old kids, easy wooden puzzles with shapes and numbers are appropriate. Besides that knobbed puzzles are also considered suitable for the toddler age. An advanced toddler of around three years of age will cherish the wooden jigsaw puzzle of at least 16 pieces of puzzle present in total.

After providing them with the puzzle for the first time you need to show them for once what the game is about. Then it’s observance time for you, check how your child plays with it. If you check even after several minutes that the child is getting frustrated and not getting the puzzle game then the best thing is to do is to sit for the play.

You need to play joyfully with the puzzles and teach the child how the game works. Then you need to let the kid try alone the next day, if still, the child doesn’t get it, that is completely fine. Just sit with your kid again and play along with the same enthusiasm. A little patience and the next day might be the sunny day you can see the child’s intelligence in practice.

• Spatial awareness and motor ability

One of the basic human skills that develop at a very young age besides concentration and recognition can be called spatial awareness. It is the skill by which a person is aware of the space around and also how the objects around are related to each other and the person as well. This skill can be improved in a toddler by the game of puzzles.

The kids learn to analyze the shape and colors of each puzzle fragment and need to try out pieces at a couple of spots. Soon the kids do the calculative trials in there and get the first puzzle fragment at the right spot without trying choices with their hands. Children of a really young age of around the age of one tend to be a little clumsy because of their developing motor skills.

Many toddlers have trouble with writing, clicking buttons, pouring water, and lots more which involves their motor abilities. The muscles in their small hands stay in need of practice to hold and move small objects without dropping them and this is exactly what they can do with puzzles to improve.

Making wooden puzzles from Jenga

Making something for your child especially gives a wonderful feeling to the parents. Building the wooden puzzles at home without vigorously searching for them in the market is a great idea which you might have already had. You can easily build it with old Jenga blocks without spending a lot of money on the branded ones.

All you need are colorful markers that dry on wood and Jenga blocks. At first, you need to draw the border of a shape in two fragments on two different Jenga blocks. Now only use the shapes which your child might already recognize or which you are planning to teach. Using the common shapes at first will be the right move.

For children younger than a year old you should first try withdrawing the same shapes with the same colors on two jengas so that the child can learn color matching as the mind might not yet be ready for the shapes puzzle. Try to mix them all up before providing the jengas to the kids. Pour them in a bag of peas or uncooked rice so that they can even search for the matching Jenga partners with much more enthusiasm.

They would love this DIY puzzle game and would be highly beneficial for their growth in basic abilities. If your child is more than two years old you might even get surprised by the innovation shown when the kid makes a tower or a new game out of it. You might have already got the answer to how to make wooden puzzles for toddlers but you should try your creative hand at some other techniques too.

3. A toddler learning from the wooden shapes puzzle

Making wooden puzzles out of scratch

This method involves making all the wooden blocks yourself and giving a boost to your craftsmanship. You will need to first collect the materials required and be ready to spend a chunk load of time building a toy that will help in your little one’s development. The materials you will need are,

• Painter’s tape
• Printer paper
• Adhesive spray
• Pencil and pen
• Scroll saw
• Palm sander
• Sandpaper
• Sealer

After collecting all these you need to check if all of the items being used are safe and appropriate for the children depending on their age. The sealers available in the market are not safe to keep around kids as most of them have toxic chemicals.

If you are planning on building with your child around then the other parent needs to supervise as well. There will be some sharp and powerful tools you will be using so you might as well bring in protective gears for yourself. The answer to your  question of how to make wooden puzzles for toddlers are as follows:

• Cut out the template- The first task is to pick the proper piece of wood which you already might be having in your garage as leftovers from other furnishings. Then it is also important to select the shape of the puzzle. As in com’s project, they have chosen an elephant. The puzzle would be around 4 inches tall and 8 inches wide and the thickness around 4 inches too.

• Using tape and spray- You need to have printed out the selected template to use as the object which can be an animal or similar object that the child will love. Then add contact paper on top of the wood and then using the spray adhesive place the template too.
• Cut the outline from the wood- Chunking out the main part of the shape outline first would help you with better handling of the wooden piece. If your wood is fragile then trying cut out the smaller or individual pieces directly.
• Draw the pieces nicely- You can even change the original template and carve out pieces that would be easier to cut. The experts suggest creating patient curves and smoothen them later on.

• The finishing- Use the sandpaper to smooth the rough edges or any sharp ones which you might have curved. Do not take any risks and keep them all without any rough corners. Then you can even add colors. You can use another technique to your question on how to make wooden puzzles for toddlers from the idea of https://www.loveandrenovations.com/diy-wooden-puzzles/.

 Conclusion

As you might have already understood that puzzles are one of the most important games that your child should have for the right amount of development and abilities. Making wooden puzzles for your child would not only bring immense happiness to you but will also increase the love towards you from the child. This will help you brush up on your creative skills and save some money as well. There is more than one easy technique and do not hesitate to try them on for your child.