Puzzles

Winter is a great time to do family jigsaw puzzles. When we were small, we used to 'help' my mother do the large 1000 piece puzzles. I'm sure we weren't much help, but we had a lot of fun together. My family did the same. It is even better when the puzzles show places you might like to visit or have visited. You can discuss these at the same time you are doing the puzzle. If your children are younger, do not limit yourself to puzzles the kids can do by themselves. If they are at least 5, they will have fun trying to help you with yours. You might want to start with medium difficulty, 250 piece puzzles and work on up to the more challenging.

Puzzles bring lots of benefits, both to kids and adults. The challenge to deciphering is a great skill to develop. Many adults cannot see the larger picture from smaller pieces, and this is important on the job. Puzzles can help you think this way. Puzzles challenge your perceptions. They can keep your brain growing as you age and ward off some of the mental challenges that can accompany aging. They can be a great interactive family time.

If you are already great at puzzles, you might try alternate solving methods. I prefer to do the edge first and work my way in. This seems the easiest. To challenge myself, I will try to go from the top down. If there are lots of trees and shrubs, this is hard for me as I have trouble distinguishing the greens and darker colors. I do better with the blues in the sky! Might be why I rarely wear green:) You can assign different parts of the puzzle to different people. You can start in the middle and work out, finishing with the edges.

I have a portable puzzle surface my daughter gave me a few years ago. It is a large piece of felt that rolls around a large tube. This way, I can get the puzzle out of the way when I need the table-and keep the pieces away from my cats. My mother has a slightly different surface that is like a large portfolio that closes over the puzzle to keep it in place. These surfaces allow you to take lots of time to work on the puzzle as it will not be in the way. This can be good if you limit the puzzle times to snowy/rainy days or evenings without television, perhaps with nice music in the background.

Happy puzzling.