Learning While Playing With Building Blocks and Wooden Puzzles

I’m pretty sure all of us played with building blocks and puzzles at one point of our lives.  My sisters and I used to have hours of fun with these toys building fortresses and castles, figuring out how to put 500 puzzle pieces together   Nowadays, kids have dozens of choices with building blocks and puzzles manufactured in different materials and sizes.  There are Megabloks, Smart Stacks, wooden blocks, and of course, the legendary Lego of our childhood.   Kids, and kids at heart, nowadays can even find more challenge in 3d puzzles that come in unique designs.

Why are blocks and puzzles such great toys for kids?  Well, apart from the fact that kids love playing with them, these toys are great tools for enriching different areas of child development.  Aside from developing hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, building blocks and puzzles develop logical thinking and cognitive skills.  They can even enhance language skills if you take time to talk to the children about the picture they’re putting together or about the structure they are building.

My little ones also have their share of wooden puzzles and building blocks.  They’ve got wooden puzzles for learning the alphabet, matching objects, and completing pictures.  They can spend hours building castles and trains with their Imaginarium block set and Megabloks.  Their play doesn’t stop at building structures, it extends to a different world of pretend play where they can be princess and prince or superhero and villain, and where absolutely anything can happen.