Puzzles sound so old school, I know. But puzzles are great for so many reasons. They develop logic and problem-solving skills. It helps kids (and adults) to sit and focus therefore develop that stick to it attitude that helps people succeed in life. And it de-stresses so many. But I hear complaints all the time about puzzles. But most of those complaints are about storage and trying to figure out where found pieces go. It doesn’t have to be that way!!!

We love a puzzle here in the NerdFamily. But not in the rainy day, sit for 3 hours, and just do puzzles kind of way. Instead, we grab those hidden moments that would other be lost. We put up a folding table and throw a puzzle on it. This is when we use those big puzzles that you just don’t have a lot of time for. We only do this when we can leave it up for a few days. Then we take those minutes that pop up through the day and head to the table. Maybe we are watching tv and working on it. That time when dinner is almost ready and you don’t have time to do anything, puzzle time;). Those minutes when half the family is ready to go somewhere and they are waiting on the other half? Puzzle time.  

I hear it now, “How do you not lose all those little pieces? How to you keep them all together?” That is easier than you think! And when you find that random puzzle piece you will know right where it goes! 

1)Get a marker or a stamp. Stamp or write a letter (or code of some sort) on the back of every piece. Yes, I know it sounds tedious. It really isn’t that time consuming. With smaller children use a color as part of your code. Then they don’t have to read!

2)Cut out the front picture from the box. Be honest, those boxes never last very long anyways. On the back of the picture write the code for that puzzle and how many pieces there are. 

3)Put the whole mess into a ziplock bag! Throw the bags into a bin and put the bin on the shelf. If you have a lot of puzzles, like some of us, you might want to have different bins for different sized puzzles. That way if your 4-year-old goes to grab a puzzle they can just access their smaller ones;). 

That is it! 3 steps to storing your puzzles! Now go have some fun!!!

 

   This is part of the 10 Days of Nerdy Fun!!! Make sure you hop over to see what other great posts of nerdy fun that will be shared!