Jigsaw puzzles, while sometimes dismissed as kids’ toys from decades past, in fact have a lot to offer for any player today, young or old, and moderate puzzles like a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle or a 750 piece jigsaw puzzle can pack a lot more health benefits than some people may realize, and best of all, puzzles don’t have to be plugged in or connected to the Internet, and since they’re so simple to make, a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle and more can be easy to find and collect with little trouble, and nearly any toy store or hobby shop should have some on display, ready for play. What is more, these toys are designed for everyone, young or old, and a puzzle’s piece count and the complexity of the image on it can alter the challenge levels involved. Tough puzzles may be a 1000 pc puzzle or even a 2000 piece puzzle, and if the image has little variance on it, like a picture of a lightly cloudy sky, the puzzle can be quite a challenge to complete. Why should someone play a jigsaw puzzle today?
On Puzzles
In a sense, the oldest known puzzle was a dissection of a square that Archimedes wrote about in 250 BC, but in a more modern sense, the first puzzles that kids used were wood cut-out puzzles that were maps of the British Empire in the early 1800s or so, and by the turn of the 20th century, easy puzzles and tough puzzles alike were in the market across the United Kingdom, United States, and beyond, with challenge levels for anyone and everyone to try out. A puzzle is simple to create; it is merely a sheet of cardboard with an image printed onto it, then cut into a number of pieces that go together in a certain way. Puzzles today can have a fantastic variety of images, ranging from stock images like a forest or a rural cottage all the way to pop culture images from major brand names and beyond. A 500 piece jigsaw puzzle, for example, may have an image for recent pop culture icons and popular art. In general, a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle may be a good starting point for teenaged user of puzzles; a 300 count puzzle may be too easy, but a 2000 piece puzzle is quite the challenge.
The Mental Benefits
Completing a puzzle seems simple enough. It only involves assembling cardboard pieces together to form a complete image, but in fact, puzzles, and other toys like items like them, actually stimulate crucial areas of the brain that need development in children and should be maintained for adults. Puzzles are a combination of motor and mental skills, and piecing together a coherent image with physical items can improve spatial awareness, critical thinking skills, and hand-eye coordination. And what is more, scientists have long since determined that human bodies and minds are designed to work best when they are moving, and puzzles are an easy way to take advantage of this. Even sitting down and making constant motions to assemble a physical puzzle is stimulating, and this can make learning a hands-on activity for kids and help their brains grow. This can boost creativity and problem-solving skills later in life.
For adults, maintaining mental prowess is easy to do when one gets a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle or even a 1000 piece puzzle if someone is looking for a challenge, and a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle can be a great therapeutic aid for an adult with special needs. It has been determined that mental stimulation is key to helping slow down the effects of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease, and while nothing truly cures Alzheimer’s, doing puzzles can help any patient. This is a convenient, simple way to maintain one’s mental faculties or provide therapy for someone in need. Other stimulation for an Alzheimer’s patient such as reading or socializing can also help them manage their condition. A puzzle is easy enough to acquire and give to a patient, and these puzzles are also easy to store and organize in a small collection. A person may collect their favorite puzzles based on the image or difficulty level.
