My Top Five Favorite Educational Puzzles

Homeschool can get a little boring, but I find the best way to make learning fun is through puzzles. Puzzles encourage a child to think physically, logically, and creatively. I have dozens of wonderful puzzles that we have used for a long time to teach math, history, geography, and other subjects, but these five puzzles are my absolute favorite for kids between kindergarten and third grade.

Melissa & Doug USA Puzzle
This is my number one favorite puzzle for several reasons. It's huge-- around 3 feet wide. Not only that, it really challenges a child's spatial abilities. Before we even started geography lessons, I asked my child to complete this puzzle. She loved it so much, I started timing her to see how long it would take her to fit the pieces together. 

From an educator's POV, this puzzle is the perfect complement to teach the states of America to children. When I first introduced the states to my child, I used this puzzle. One-by-one, we went over each state and it's capital. Once we dove deep into state geography, she was able to put this puzzle together and understand the layout of America.

Easy Addition Math Puzzle
Math isn't easy for every student and many math educators say that young kids need to see math physically before they can perform the operations mentally.

And I completely agree! My daughter didn't "get" mental math until she fully comprehended that math was tangible. We worked with tools such as blocks or marbles to show small addition and subtraction problems. When we began doing addition facts by rote, I bought this game. She could see the facts and she could also turn the pieces over for the addends and see if she knew the sum. I credit a lot of my child's early arithmetic knowledge tothis game.

Match It! Spelling
Another wonderful tool for your kids -- this spelling game is great because your kids learn how to spell three letter words and they think that they are playing a game. You can use this game to teach kids about word families and many other words.

I like to use this game to see how many words my child can spell in under a minute.

Periodic Table of Elements Puzzle
This is for older kids or for a parent who is really dedicated to teaching their children about two things: chemistry and how to put together a larger jigsaw puzzle.

This is was the first "grown-up" puzzle my daughter put together, with my help of course. The puzzle provides all of the information to teach kid about the elements, making it a really amazing tool. And when you are done, you could totally frame it!

The Solar System Puzzle
Last but definitely not least, my child's personal favorite is the Melissa & Doug solar system puzzle. The puzzle isn't to scale, but it sure is beautiful.

When it's put together, the puzzle is 2-feet by 3-feet.  After it is put together, you can use it to teach your kids about the planets, the Milky Way and anything else about space that you can come up with.