Looking for a way to entertain your kids that's easy, thrifty and unique? Why not try making your own puzzles!
It can be a great way to recycle, it costs next to nothing and it gives your kids something completely new to play and learn with!
Homemade puzzles are surprisingly easy, and can be made with everyday objects or a few essentials from your craft box. Here are some of our favourites that you can try at home:
1. Pipe cleaner shape match
This is super simple but really fun!
You will need:
Pipecleaners in various colours
White paper
Marker pens
Hot glue gun
Start by bending your pipecleaners into shapes and carefully glue the ends together using a hot glue gun.
Place the finished shapes onto a piece of paper and carefully draw round them with a black marker pen.
Mix up the pipecleaners and invite your little one to match them to the shapes on the page.
This is a great opportunity to use the language of shape and colour. Any way in which you can make learning hands-on and playful is a great way to introduce new concepts.
2. Felt shapes
This is a great way to use up any scraps of felt you have lying around.
You will need:
Scissors
PVA glue
Card
Cut shapes out of felt - using small sharp scissors is easiest for this.
We made a square, rectangle, triangle, diamond, rhombus, heart, circle, semi-circle, oval, star, pentagon and a hexagon.
Glue the shapes onto card and when dry, cut around them and then cut each shape in half.
Jumble the pieces up and invite your child to match them up!
3. Magazine puzzles
This is the ultimate recycled puzzle and you can create them around any theme you like.
You will need:
Magazine(s)
Glue stick
Scissors
Card
Cut out some pictures from magazines - we have used pictures of fruit and veg from a free supermarket magazine, but you could also use pictures of flowers from seed catalogues or toys from brochures.
Glue them onto some cardboard (a cereal box would be perfect).
Once dry, cut around them and then cut into halves, thirds, quarters, depending on how difficult or easy you want the puzzle to be.
Jumble them up and challenge your little one to recreate the pictures.
4. Playdough prints
This is a lovely way to explore textures and prints, and you can re-roll and make it over and over again.
You will need:
Various small and interesting household objects
Playdough
Rolling pin
Enjoy seeing what interesting imprints you can make from objects around the house - try to find small items with distinctive textures.
Roll out you playdough then carefully push the objects in enough to make a sharp print.
Place the objects next to the playdough and challenge your little one to match them up. They may get a few surprises!
To tailor this to younger children, use simpler objects with a more defined outline, such as shapes from a shape-sorter.
For more playdough ideas visit https://www.howweplayandlearn.com/post/playdough-what-you-need-to-know
5. Lid match
Milk lids are so versatile! Here we've used them to make a simple maths puzzle.
You will need:
Milk lids (we collected 20)
Coloured paper to match
White permanent marker
Black felt pen
Take your milk lids and write the numbers 1-20 on them in white permanent marker.
Then do the same on your coloured paper. If you want you could also draw a circle round each lid to make it more obvious how they should be matched.
To make this a little harder you could incorporate times tables or write the numbers out of sequence.
6. Outline puzzles
This is one of the quickest ways to make a puzzle and you can use virtually anything - I like to raid our loose parts collection or grab some stones from the garden.
You will need:
White paper
Marker pen
Lots of the same thing with slightly different outlines
Take your objects and select those with the most interesting outlines then position them on your paper. I find that an A4 sheet has room for about 6 - 12 objects dependant on the size.
Use your maker pen to carefully trace around each of the items in position.
Remove them and it's ready to go!
Keeping things seasonal is a lovely way to mix it up, think mini pumpkins at Hallowe'en, decorations at Christmas or flowers in Spring.
7. Silhouette puzzles
This is another take on the outline puzzle, but instead of black pen on white, you use white on black, and choose a variety of objects with distinctive shapes.
You will need:
Black paper
Selection of interesting objects
White chalk or chalk pen
Choose a mixture of toys and household objects and arrange them on the piece of black paper.
Draw round them in your chalk/chalk pen.
Remove the objects and place them next to the silhouettes so they ready to be matched up.
8. Lolly stick match
Lolly sticks are really handy to have in your craft kit as they can be used for so many kinds of puzzles. This one is so quick and easy but it can be used time and time again.
You will need:
Lolly sticks
Pencil
Take your lolly sticks and group them together; the more sticks you put together, the trickier the puzzle will be.
Draw your design in pencil across each group of sticks, then go over them in paint.
We have made numbers but you could draw anything you want - how about favourite animals or weather symbols?
9. Leaf match
About as simple as it gets for a homemade puzzles, all you need is a pair of scissors!
You will need:
Scissors
Leaves
Head out into the garden to collect some leaves, or grab a handful from your local park. Make sure you don't pick anything poisonous - our leaves are all edibles or herbs.
Carefully cut them down the central 'spine' using your scissors.
Jumble them up and have fun matching up the halves of the leaves.
You might want to talk about what plants they are from while your little one is doing the puzzle. It's also a great opportunity to talk about symmetry.
10. Pompom patterns
Pompoms can be used for a colourful and fun way to develop fine motor skills.
You will need:
Pompoms in various colours
Felt pens in matching colours
Lolly sticks
Use your felt pens to draw dots in alternating colours on your lolly sticks. You can choose how the pattern repeats.
This is perfect for introducing sequencing and and if you don't have lolly sticks, you could use paper or use dot stickers instead of felt tips.
11. Colour sort
This is a fun way to learn about colour mixing.
You will need:
Objects in various colours
Coloured chalk markers or felt tips
We like doing this in our tuff tray as we can write directly on it, but you could easily do it on some paper.
Draw overlapping circles in two colours; so blue and yellow with green in the middle, red and yellow with orange in the middle, blue and red with purple etc.
If you want to provide the objects to sort, then grab a load of household objects / toys and pop them next to the circles. But a really fun way to do this is to invite your child to go on a colour 'hunt' around your house, collecting objects as they go.
12. Duplo shapes
Everyone has some building blocks at home - whether Lego, Duplo or Megablocks - they will all work equally well for this lovely tactile puzzle.
You will need:
Building blocks
Matching coloured paper
Pencil
Black marker pen
Select 4 or 5 Duplo pieces in different colours and place them on some matching paper in an interesting shape.
Draw around them in pencil first (this is easiest) then go over the lines in black pen.
Give your child a pile of the blocks and invite them to make the shapes. If they want, they can make their own shapes after, for a great way to extend learning.
Have you tried any of the puzzles? Let me know how you got on!
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