Holiday Gifting: Owl Aboard Family Puzzle

You know what I absolutely love? Games or activities that make it easy for families to do together regardless of age. I know it's easy to play games with your 8-year-olds, maybe even those who are 7 or 6, but it's a little more challenging when they are 3. 

So when I saw this amazing family puzzle that comes with 20 big pieces for little kids and 40 pieces for big kids (and adults!), I knew I was going to recommend it. It's challenging enough for two people of vastly different ages and experiences to enjoy. 

Putting together a puzzle has so many benefits! In case you didn't know, it can...

• improve short-term memory,
• lower stress,
• develop concentration,
• teach patience and self control,
• develop fine-motor skills,
• reinforces connections between brain cells, and
• so much more!

My mother loved to put together puzzles. When she was alive, she would buy my children puzzles for Christmas most years. We still have some of them. 

My grandmother also enjoys putting together puzzles in her assisted living home. She's been fighting dementia for a several years now, but likes doing puzzles, crosswords, and word searches. They say it is great for her mental health. 

And all my kids love working puzzles. We haven't done many in the last two years since my youngest child, who's now three, became mobile and into everything. We were afraid of losing pieces. He's just recently discovered puzzles, though. The age-appropriate kind, of course. And he loves them, too. 

Which is why I think this puzzle is just brilliant! Big pieces for him to manipulate, and small ones for the rest of us. I'm so looking forward to the moment when my kids open this and realize it's for all of them. 

If this is something that you'd love for your family, you can find it here on Amazon:

Learning Toys for Toddlers

The World Health Organization recommends that children between the ages of 2 and 4 spend no more than one hour staring at a screen each day (newborns up to age 2 should have NONE). But that's super hard for parents in today's technology-driven society. Screens are everywhere! And it is especially difficult for those of us with older children or nieces and nephews who whip out their phones when they come to visit.

This post contains affiliate links. 

There are two ways that I personally battle this. The first is to spend a LOT of time reading. We have books everywhere in the house. And my 21-month-old constantly brings me books to read. I try really hard to stop what I'm doing and read to him when I can. Or I make one of my older kids read to him.

The second way is by providing my kid with plenty of non-electronic toys. I try to focus on toys that inspire imaginative play or that develop important fine-motor skills. With two older kids, we still have tons of leftover action figures, animals, blocks, and vehicles.

But I also am building up my collection of wooden puzzles and learning toys. Two of my favorites are the bilingual wood puzzles shown at the top of this post from Begin Again. The chameleon puzzle is still a little hard for him to put together, but he loves playing with the pieces and watching me put it together. I use it to teach him colors and take my time showing him how the pieces connect together. I also love that it has the words and numbers printed in English and Spanish on the individual pieces, which helps me raise him in a print-rich environment.

The other is a gear stacker. It's super fun and an important toy for developing his fine-motor skills through stacking (a very important activity for toddlers). It also has the colors printed in English and Spanish on the gears.

He plays with both of these on a daily basis and I'm always having to hunt down pieces that he's carried off. I love that he loves them.

Recently, I bought a lacing apple for quiet play in church. I used it for the first time last Sunday and it was a success! Sorry, I left it at church, so I can't take a picture. But it is the same one in the middle of the image below.

You can find these and many others on my Learning Toys for Toddlers Idea Page on Amazon. Here's just a peek at some of the toys I recommend because I already have them or I want to buy them. Check out the little robots! Those are next on my list to purchase.