Green Owl Toys Blog

At a fair, that I was exhibiting at over the weekend, I had an interesting question put across to me, ”Are there any puzzles for 4 to 6 year olds”.  “Well, … ” I started but then realised that I was not that sure.

I started the process of deduction (as one would when concerning puzzles), you have the beginners puzzle that are in the shapes of cubes.
Then there are the first jigsaws made of 3 pieces. These usually attract the attention of 2+ year olds.
The next level are 9 and 12 pieces – these fill in the age group up to 3.
But then I had to stop myself, because puzzles are the same as learning a language or learning to write, you need to practice building them. By repeating the process over and over again, we become more confident and quicker to solve problems. If a child is introduced to puzzles but then does not have many opportunities to play with them, then he will not be able to move onto the next level as quickly as another child would do.
Anyhow, if we continue to think that the toddler in question does practice building the jigsaw enough times then by the age of 4 he/she should manage a 40 piece puzzle with ease.

And here I stop again because the next number of pieces in a jigsaw is 100. This is a large jump for such a young person.  When searching the Internet there are only a few 60 piece puzzles out there.  The question is “Where are the inbetweeners?”.  Do we have to wait until our children are old enough to have the patience and concentration to tackle a 100 piece jigsaw or do we ask the designers to create more puzzles for 4-6 year olds?

As a supplier of toys – I will look into it but don’t wait around!  I am not sure I will manage to get the processes in motion quick enough for our young ones not to out grow the 60 piece ones.

What a powerful word a child finds the minute they say “no”. For months and months babies do as we say because they cannot do anything else. But by the time they say “no” they have physically developed enough to be able to walk and shake their head. When they see the reaction of us parents to the word “no” they are fascinated.  Fascinated by our reaction and fascinated that they have a choice in what they can do.

Think about it. At this precious age of between 18 months and 2 and a half years old, toddlers do not have many words that they can pronounce properly and when they say such a simple, short word: “no” it has such a profound effect on the person that leads their lives: the parent. For example, you are feeding the same lunch meal for the 4th time in a row.  You are already feeling guilty of your lack of inspiration or energy to give something new. Your toddler is tired of this and says “no”. You, for obvious reasons, say “Oh sorry sunshine – are you bored of this? Oh Okay I understand I will make something new”.  Your toddler has said something short, sweet and easy to say and you have answered with a whole new sentence and doing something completely new for him to eat. Wow! So many new things are happening.

Toddler saying no by wagging finger

This doesn’t mean that you are doing something wrong.  If you decide not to react and continue with the lunch you might still get your way and make him eat the old lunch through perseverance.  However, if he is actually bored of the meal you might not get the entire meal consumed anyway.  So there is this fine line of knowing that you should enforce your better judgement but also common sense that he/she is also human and can have a choice. In other words, it might be best if you just take a little caution how quickly you react to a “no” answer – just so that he/she doesn’t think you are so easy to change your mind towards his/hers.

There are heaps and heaps of puzzles out there. Many companies only sell puzzles and do well but how do you know which one is a good buy or which is the best for my child?

Firstly, puzzles are great for the imagination, creativity and logic.  They also create a medium for conversation and language building.   Doing simple tasks correctly at an early age gives the child success. Putting a few pieces together will bring confidence in their own abilities. There are different types of puzzles depending on your child’s age.

The very first type is cubes with pictures on them.  Here the toddler learns that a picture can be made by putting pieces together. Cubes make it easy to create logic and make the first type of understanding about puzzles. The wooden cubes are simple and involve one type of thought process: make a picture. The pictures should perhaps be what the toddler is learning to sound or speak . Nothing too complicated. Pictures of farmyard animals is usually best.

The next step is to put one, two or three pieces together that resemble actual puzzles pieces. This adds another dimension to puzzle building: make a picture and to make the pieces fit.   Here again, keep to simple pictures and ones that your toddler can recognise.

After this you need to build up to more and more piece puzzles. All the time he/she will need your guidance:  How to put them together? Why did you think this piece goes with that piece? What is in the picture and then to talk about the pictures.  Encourage your child to talk about what he/she is thinking while you watch or interact. This will build self esteem and one-to-one time with your child.  Children love it when their parents are praising them and helping them with activities. It will encourage him/her to do more and say more and help you create experiences together.  Here are 3 great puzzles that have pieces just the right size to put the pictures together but has enough to challenge your child. These are called “Beneath our city / country / seaside” and are all available at www.GreenOwlToys.co.uk.  It also has a few things that are easy for parents to talk about but will open your child’s eyes to the world around us.

How to entice your toddler to talk more or even start saying words is difficult. Many books state that an 18month baby/toddler should be saying up to 50 words! If your child is not at this stage, not to worry he/she will understand 3 or 4 times as many. Your child just might be a bit shy or needs a bit more practice.

All children start out with their own language called: baby language and do not say proper words. How to change all those lovely sounds into something that you can understand is not that easy.

Here are a few ways that you can help him/her to hear the sounds so that they can interpret them into words:

• have one-to-one time – take turns listening and responding to one another.
• reinforce eye contact when you have some one-to-one time.
• repetition – research shows: the repetition of words and phrases helps reinforce the neural pathways in their brains that link sound into speech. Repetition accelerates language development.
• talk to your child what are you doing. Especially when changing nappies, getting dressed or bathing. (Here you are practicing body parts.)
• sing nursery rhymes – this will improve their vocabulary and creativity
• try not to correct his/her words. If your child says a word which is almost the full word or does not say the syllables in the correct order - do not correct it. Praise instead. The more practice he/she gets with the beginning of the word the quicker the complete word will be said.
• Once you have established a word/sound (like “moo” for a cow) start to reinforce that a “cow” makes the moo sound. This shows that words are related to one another.

Research shows that once your child reaches 50 words their vocabulary will explode!  However, this will only be true if you continue to talk to your toddler. The quantity of words addressed directly to children between 1 and 3 makes a difference to her vocabulary and verbal IQ.

A few suggested games which makes it fun for you both:

• Children love to play hide-and-seek games. Take their favourite toy (their cuddly toy or car) and hide it behind something and say ”Where’s bunny? Where’s bunny?” “Oh there is bunny hiding under your leg/behind your ear/behind Mummy’s head/behind the chair”.    Let your child hide the bunny too. If you ask “Where’s bunny?” they will most probably show you and eventually say where!
• Read story books that are mostly pictures of animals. Children love the noises the animals make and often repeat them. (this also improves concentration)
• Make believe shopping games. Take fruit and vegetables (toy or real) and a shopping bag. Pretend to go shopping a put things in the bag, naming each item as you go. Go to the till and take them out again and beep them through (as if you are at the supermarket) and again naming them as you take them out of the bag.
• Have a play farm.  You can create many scenario’s with the farmer and his animals. Either a farm where you paint yourself (boosts creativity) or one done for you!  Practice the names and sounds of animals.