How to Buy Your Kids the Right Jigsaw Puzzles

In a world of technological wonders, it's easy to forget the simpler childhood games and challenges of yesterday. Too often, children equate a challenge to mastering the next level of a video game. We've forgotten about those challenges that require no electricity. One of those fun games are kids jigsaw puzzles. Most of us can remember the sense of satisfaction and the pride felt from our own childhoods when that last piece of the puzzle was put into place. We felt as though we'd accomplished a major goal; and indeed, we had. Here are a few tips for those wishing to buy puzzles for the classroom or home.

Kids jigsaw puzzles offer many benefits of helping kids to grow and develop their skills and talents. Here are a few of the ways they help kids:

o A great way to introduce teamwork and collaborative efforts as they work on the puzzles with other kids or family members
o Builds critical thinking skills as they match the colors and analyze the shapes.
o Manipulating the pieces helps to develop hand coordination, especially for younger kids
o Helps develop patience, especially for younger kids under age 6
o Strengthens relationships with others
o Increased attention to detail, ability to focus and concentration skills
o Develop social and communication skills

So with all of these great reasons to get a puzzle for your kids, the next question is how do you buy puzzles that will both entertain and challenge young minds? Here are some key things to consider when shopping for jigsaw puzzles.

o The level of difficulty must be appropriate for the child's age. The younger the child the fewer the number of pieces in the puzzle. Anything too challenging will cause him to give up because of its difficulty and any puzzles you purchase that are too easy will cause him to quickly lose interest. For little ones under the age of 6, the bigger the jigsaw pieces, the easier it is for them to manipulate the pieces as they put them in place. After age six, kids have increased coordination skills and should be able to work with the smaller pieces that provide more of a challenge for both their dexterity and thinking skills.
o The puzzle theme should be a good fit for your child. Find a topic that your child loves then get puzzles which use the same theme. Is your eight year old fascinated with horses? There are literally thousands of jigsaw puzzles with images of horses. There are lots of themes available so finding one that works for your child should not be too hard. Their interest in the favorite topic will rub off on the puzzle activity, making it something they enjoy doing and want to do again and again.
o The puzzle material must be appropriate for the child's age. Wooden jigsaw puzzles are available for toddlers and young preschool kids who need something that can take a beating and keep on working.

You can also get creative with kids jigsaw puzzles, using them as an event for the whole family or make it into a fun contest just for the kids. Here is an idea to make it interesting. Remove the puzzle pieces from the box that reveals the finished puzzle. Tell your children the first one to guess what it is after they've begun putting it together wins a prize. It's a great incentive for them to work together as they eagerly anticipate the puzzle's final look. A small reward is always fun too. But even better than any reward is for Mom or Dad to sit down with them, spend some time and provide a bit of help as they move forward with completing their jigsaw puzzles.

The benefits of jigsaw puzzles will stay with your family for a lifetime and the tradition can be passed down.

How To Find Age Appropriate Toys For Children

Fond memories of childhood usually bring to mind a favorite toy. A cuddly doll, colorful crayons, or a special wagon are all childhood favorites. Toys bring a great deal of joy to children, but they also can be valuable learning tools. Exploring, pretending, and sharing are just a few of the important skills children develop while they play. Toys don't have to be expensive. Cardboard boxes in the backyard and measuring cups in the bathtub are favorite standards. But parents who do wish to purchase toys may find it helpful to know what toys to choose and which to avoid for children of different ages.

Infants and Toddlers - Every child is unique, has its specific pattern of development and has different ways of cruising through the milestones of physical, mental and social development. Infants and toddlers learn about the world through their senses. They are interested in the sight, sound, smell, texture, and taste of things. Objects or toys that can be squeezed, dropped, poked, twisted, or thrown are sure to cause delight. Toddlers also enjoy any item that can be stacked, poured, opened, closed, pushed, or pulled. Toys are vital for the physical and mental development of your infant baby. The toys have a significant bearing on your infant's personality, therefore must be carefully selected.

Preschoolers - During these years, children use their imagination to imitate adult activity and participate actively in physical games. Their physical coordination develops, and the foundation of printing and writing is also laid at this time. Preschool children learn by doing. They are busy developing new skills. They like drawing, painting, and building. They also spend a great deal of time pretending. Dress-up clothes, pretend play and puppets are big favorites. Preschoolers are energetic and active. They need large balls to roll and throw, wagons to pull, and tricycles to ride.

School-age Children - At this stage child learn about getting along with others, and about the adult world of sports, games and careers. They develop intellectual and social interests and make strong friendships, likes and dislikes. School-age children feel more grown-up and love activities that lead to "real products" such as jewelry, "designer" T-shirts, or stamp collections. They also develop a keen interest in sports and enjoy having adult-like physical equipment such as softball gloves, tennis rackets, or skates. They have a better understanding of rules and enjoy playing with others. Board games, cards, or dominoes teach math concepts and problem-solving skills.

The age of your child and not the activity level, is a primary factor in selecting an appropriate educational learning toys. Toys should not promote a single thought or concept; instead, they should enhance creativity and thinking skills. Toys and games are also important for the child to learn and practice logical and problem-solving. Toys that can be played in a number of ways serve as great educational tools and endorse comprehensive development of your child.

Educational Benefits Of Children's Puzzles

Puzzles are a traditional favourite children's educational toy among not just kids, put parents and teachers.

You can improve your child's early learning both at home and at school by giving them puzzle toys to play with.

Children's puzzles help to develop a whole range of skills, including cognitive skills, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and even social skills.

Puzzles improve cognitive - reasoning and problem-solving - skills by helping children to see the relationship between the whole and its parts.

They can also enhance visual spacial awareness and teach subjects such as the alphabet, counting, colours, shapes and sorting objects into sets like animals or vehicles.

Motor skills such as grasping and manipulation (not the monetary or emotional kind) are developed through puzzles such as jigsaws, or those which require the child to put pegs or blocks in holes or attach one object to another. These skills are crucial for writing and drawing, but children begin learning them long before they ever pick up a crayon.

Similarly, babies and toddlers learn hand-eye coordination skills as they pick up pieces of a puzzle and place them in their right place.

Playing with puzzles can also teach your children social skills when done with other children. Children learn share tasks and cooperate as they swap pieces of the puzzle and discuss where they should go. They can also learn how to cope with frustration when they cannot make a piece fit.

In short, puzzles are fun, stimulating, educational toys for children and adults of all ages.

Children Educational Toys

5 Benefits of Puzzles For Child Development

Puzzles are one of the oldest pastimes for children, and there is very good reason parents have been purchasing them nonstop for many generations. Besides giving parents quiet time to do housework or just relax, there are many benefits for children who regularly play with puzzles of all varieties.

Mental Stimulation
Puzzles are a constant source of mental stimulation for children of all ages, even if they are simply reworking the same puzzle over and over again. They have to think through the best strategy for fitting the pieces together, such as doing the edges first and filling in the middle or vice versa. They are also challenged from the first piece to the last as they try to locate specific pieces and match the connecting parts up so they resemble the picture on the box.

Even electronic toys and educational games currently on the market can rarely compete with the consistent challenge presented by a simple puzzle.

Hand-Eye Coordination
Developing hand-eye coordination is extremely important for younger children, and puzzles are a great way to do it! The reason small children have to use oversized puzzle pieces and try a bit harder to fit them together is because they haven't yet developed the coordination required to skillfully put together a puzzle with small pieces.

Babies start out with wooden peg puzzles with their tiny hands being guided by a parent. With time they are able to match the shapes and do those puzzles on their own, then graduate to oversized floor puzzles and eventually to the small pieces of 500+ piece puzzles. This is a reflection of the gradual development of hand and eye coordination.

Reasoning & Problem Solving Skills
Solving a puzzle also demands problem solving and reasoning skills. Children are constantly confronted with small problems that must be solved in order to complete the puzzle successfully. For instance, when it comes down to those last few missing pieces which are all similarly colored, the child must determine which one goes in which spot. This is usually done by process of elimination, trying one piece in each hole until it fits somewhere.

With time, children are able to solve these little problems much faster.

Creative Interest
Many children also are sparked to creative activities by working puzzles. They enjoy looking at the pictures on the box and of the completed puzzle and will maybe feel led to draw, paint, and color pictures that are similar in nature.

Many children latch onto particular types of puzzles, such as a child who loves animals and the child who likes bright red fire engines. While developing all of the above skills, puzzles often open a doorway to creativity as well.

Quality Time Together
Finally, puzzles are often a great pastime that families can enjoy together. Sitting over a difficult puzzle parents are able to get their children to open up to them and talk about things they would be more timid about in other situations. This is because their mind is distracted and they are doing an enjoyable activity while chit chatting casually.

Obviously, children and parents alike have many reasons to enjoy working puzzles! From developing real life skills for young toddlers to giving older children something relaxing and enjoyable to do on a rainy afternoon, there are obviously many reasons generations of parents have purchased puzzles for their children!

Safe Toys For Christmas

like last week, asked the aunt of my husband, what would our daughter for Christmas. I was speechless, not knowing how to respond to her. Instead of a group of fantasy presented in a beautifully decorated tree, I was painting the mountains of toys (almost one million), health risks are of recent recalls Weil.

My instinctive reaction was to say: "Everything that is not made in China", but I resisted the temptation. Instead, I went to my computer and started researchingThe problem is that the American public has inspired the minds of: where our children will find games, for sure. After emerging from my computer, I realized that even though China has a scapegoat for toxic products, U.S. companies actually guilty.

For example, Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) is a U.S. company Kohlberg under fire from parents and consumer advocates because KKR is the parent company Toys 'R' Us, Dollar General and other companiesproduced or sold dangerous products. It is under pressure from manufacturers overseas shortcuts to make the products on-line prices. Although these activities have the pockets of businesses, but also has put dangerous products into the hands of children and other consumers. Avoid products made in China is not trading practices that threaten our health far from done.

So, how do we as a consumer, to handle the holidays? The first step isto seek out reputable companies to purchase toys and other gifts from. The most environmentally-sound approach is to find suppliers or stores that sell safe products in your neck of the woods. Join the local chapter of the holistic moms group, don't worry dads, you can join too (www.holisticmoms.org) and ask other members where to shop. If there are no local options, many safe products are available online.

One company I have discovered is 1888Toys.com, which has a business model that encourages sustainability and child safety. They have a wide variety of products including board games, wooden toys, kitchen sets, puzzles, and educational toys. Their products have not been affected by the recent safety recalls. The owner of the site, who is very pleasant to speak with, ensured me that all of their toys meet or exceed US and European standards for toy safety and pass regular safety and quality checks. Many of their toys are made by small companies in the USA (many are located in Montana, Minnesota and Michigan). I was also pleased to learn that the wood finishes are selected from the 'safe substances' list. (After all, lead is not the only toxic threat to children). You can purchase your gifts online at http://www.1888toys.com or call for other options. They even offer free shipping for orders over $75.

Perhaps the best alternative is to get a few extra hours of sleep on Black Friday rather than braving the crowd of holiday bargain shoppers. If you can hold off on toy shopping until after December 5th, you will have the advantage of shopping the big name stores armed with information about which of the toys found there contain toxic chemicals. Just go to http://www.HealthyToys.org on Wednesday, December 5th. That is when the results of testing performed on more than 1500 popular toys for toxic chemicals such as lead and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) will be released. Each week until Christmas more toys will be tested based upon shoppers' requests. The testing was performed by the Ecology Center in collaboration with the Washington Toxics Coalition and other leading environmental groups using technology more reliable than home lead testing kits.

Another alternative to toxic toys is to gift clothing rather than toys. If taking this approach, consider organic cotton clothing or pajamas that are inherently flame retardant so the chemical hazards of flame retardants are not absorbed through your child's skin. For babies, Under the Nile (www.underthenile.com) sells organic cotton children's clothing, stuffed toys, and a cute little crate of stuffed veggies.

As the holiday season approaches, remember that each and every dollar we spend speaks volumes about what we believe in. By refusing to support companies that endanger our health, we are paving the way for safer products and sustainable practices to thrive in the marketplace. So lets all have a happy, healthy holiday by purchasing quality products from companies that care. And remember that hand-made gifts are from the heart and equally precious. If you cannot afford to buy safer products forego the store-bought gifts and craft something yourself.

If you are looking for a gift for an adult, order the eBook "Holler for Your Health: Be the Key to a Healthy Family" at http://www.holler4health.com. This book will help the recipient preserve or reclaim their health. According to Dr. Leo Galland, author of the highly acclaimed The Fat Resistance Diet, Power Healing, and Superimmunity for Kids, "Every parent needs to read this book." Let this Christmas be the year that we provide our children with healthier gifts for themselves as well as the world they will inherit.

Learning Toys Offer Five Key Benefits in Child Development

Learning toys offer a lot more than just fun for kids. Play time for kids is like work time for adults. While most adults, don't think of kids play time as being productive, it actually offers kids many opportunities to learn and grow physically, mentally and socially.

So if play time is actually like work time, then learning toys are like work tools. The right toys help kids get the most out of their play time. That certainly changes the way we normally think of toys, and places greater importance on the role of parents in selecting the right toys for their kids.

There are several key considerations for selecting the right toy for your child:

1. Your child should like the toy and be interested in it. This one should be easy to find out.

2. The toy should be well suited to your child's physical ability.

3. The toy should be well suited to your child's mental and social abilities.

4. The toy should be well constructed, durable and safe.

Other factors to consider when selecting a toy is knowing the types of benefits that different toys provide. Learning toys can be grouped into several categories based on the benefits they offer kids.

1. Active learning toys help kids develop gross motor skills. Gross motor skills are developed by using large muscle groups. These skills are essential for healthy development of balancing, walking, rolling and running. Activities that develop gross motor skills also help develop physical strength from cardio vascular development These include push and pull toys, ride on toys, outdoor toys, gym equipment and sporting equipment.

2. Manipulative learning toys help develop fine motor skills, which is the coordination of small muscle movements such as the fingers and hands. These skills are essential for healthy development of hand-writing, drawing. These include construction toys, puzzles, pattern making toys, manipulative toys, sand box toys, water learning toys, lacing and stringing toys and doll dressing.

3. Make-believe toys help kids develop their imagination. In the world of make-believe, kids can role-play different situations which allows them to begin to practice and experiment with the results of their actions. Through their imagination, kids develop real world skills without the risks or responsibilities of the real world. The realm of imagination provides kids with a safe place to express real-world emotions, both positive and negative, without the real-world consequences. Imaginative play even helps kids define their own identities as they take on the roles of their parents. As they take on their imaginary roles, kids feel greater significance, which builds their self-esteem. Imaginative play allows kids to experience a greater sense of control over their own lives, again without the risks of the real world. Imaginative play allows kids to exercise creative thinking.

4. Creative Toys - Creative play is encouraged by musical toys and arts and crafts materials, which help kids create their own masterpieces to show the world, or at least mom and dad, what they are capable of doing. Creativity can also be stimulated by exposing kids to creative expressions from the real world in the form of dramatic plays, music, musical themed movies, art museums and even videos (just not too much).

5. Learning Toys - This category is far broader than most of us think and can include many types of toys, even ones not normally associated with learning. Traditionally this category includes electronic toys, which are like mini-computers loaded with educational value. Other learning toys include board games, strategy games like chess, puzzles, and software games.

Understanding these five key benefits for different types of learning toys can help parents make informed decisions in selecting toys for their children.

The Basics of Woodcarving

There is nothing quite like creating something with your own hands. Woodcarving is a great way to express yourself. You can create ornaments, figurines, decorations, toys, puzzles, and sculptures from a piece of wood, using your own personal interpretation of how the finished product should look. Many people love this hobby because they love to work with their hands. Most woodcarvers use only a piece of wood and a few hand tools. Hand rubbed finishes help to bring out the wood grain and detail of the piece.

The wood that you choose can have a bearing on what you are able to carve. Wood is stronger when you work with the grain. Working across the grain will result in a more brittle piece. Many woodworkers plan their most intricate pieces before deciding where to start carving. Whichever piece will be the thinnest or most delicate should be carved with the grain.

For very detailed or fine pieces, consider hardwoods that are sturdy when taken down to a tiny degree. Sycamore, maple, plum, apple, pear, and Italian walnut are common. For all other work, choose the hardwood that is easiest to work with for you. Basswood, Tupelo, mahogany, teak, chestnut, and American walnut are most popular. Softwoods are easier to carve, but they don't have the longevity that hardwoods do. In general, you want a tight grain for detail work and a fuller grain for larger tasks.

Once you've chosen your wood and picked out the best areas for your details, you can start shaping your wood. If the wood is very hard and you have a lot to take away, you may want to use a chisel and a mallet to start. If it's not too hard, you can start with a gouge and smoothly peel away layer after layer. Knives can be used on smaller projects while saws and power tools can be used on larger projects. Never cut or gouge against the grain. Always go with the grain or against it.

Tools used for finishing vary widely. Your artistic impression of what the piece should look like will have a bearing on what you end up using. Some like the sharp lines left by chisels and gouges. Smoothing can be performed with a rasp, which is like a rough version of a file. Smaller rasps and files can be used to smooth out fine details.

You can carve from a solid block of wood, a board, a dowel, a stump, or an entire tree. For small projects, like chess pieces, are easily carved from dowels. You can purchase dowel rods in varying diameters and types of wood. Some people will combine different types of wood to create unique pieces. No matter what you make, you will surely enjoy the process of woodcarving.