A child's brain is a very malleable substrate that needs to be nurtured with brain teasers early on. The thought processes that are hatched in the early childhood stage are the building blocks for the more complicated and intensive analytical skills that will be needed for tasks later in life. This is why it is important to keep a child's mind and sense stimulated and continuously honed through age-appropriate brain games, toys and puzzles.
For a child who's beginning to understand the concept of shapes, puzzles can be a very good way to start the learning process. Puzzles that have simple die cut edges can definitely be a treat for a toddler. Try to get puzzles that have less than twenty pieces for this exercise. It would also help immensely if you can get one that has big pieces so that a child can easily hold them in his hands. Aside from this, it makes it much safer since it would be a lot harder to put a large puzzle piece inside the mouth.
As children learn how to count, you may then offer a different kind of brain teaser. While flash cards are commonly used among primary school children, it may be more advantageous if you start off your little tyke with a math puzzle involving pictures and diagrams. It would be really easy to teach the processes of addition and subtraction through this.
Wooden puzzles can also be a great tool in teaching children the basics of many fields. Having letters on the blocks can help a child learn sounds and the basics of reading. Blocks can likewise be used for counting, sorting and grouping – this creating the foundation for processes such as classification and sorting like in the mathematical concept of sets. There are more intricate wooden puzzles wherein children are challenged to create another shape from a pile of other shapes. This is commonly known as "Tangrams." It became so popular a few decades back that it was even considered a wooden puzzle for adults.
Once a child learns more words and improves his grasp of language, riddles and other similar brain teasers may also be used. The analysis required in answering riddles is a step up compared to the other games since there has to be a multi-level screening for the details of the question, the context as well as the language game where the riddle is played. To make it easy for the child to ease in to this new game, try to keep the riddles based on things that are commonly seen in the house. As the child builds confidence and sees more things outdoors and in picture books, he or she will be able to identify other things even if they are in a form of a riddle. Riddles are a great way to evoke learning while injecting humor to education.
Again, you can never really start too early. Make sure your child has the edge later on in life by taking time out to play some brain teasers with your son or daughter.
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