Family Time - Puzzle Evening
With electronic entertainment all around us and around our kids, I sometimes feel that very simple things can bring us back together and connect us. We are staring at screens all day long, often even professionally (at least I do…). Television, Game Consoles, Smartphones and Tablets are really everywhere and sometimes I wonder if our brains are really made for this world. We are made to touch things, look at each others face, make plans together and figure things out. Without pushing buttons or swiping, but in real life.
That’s why we brought back “puzzle evening”. Since we have kids there wasn’t a time without puzzles, there were always some around. But we never really used it as an evening activity for the whole family. No TV, snacks, conversations, laughter and puzzle. That’s it. It’s really that simple.
In this blogpost I want to share some of my tips for a nice puzzle evening and how to get your kids engaged. The main thing is that it isn’t something that the kids do and the parents watch. No. You all do it. Pick a puzzle that interests the kids. Could be their favorite comic character or just a beautiful picture. Pro Tip: You can even snuck in educational Stuff like a world map.
We (the adults) often give in and agree to make another “Frozen” themed puzzle. (We must have 10 by now…). But sometimes we go for an adult version of a puzzle like our 500 piece American National Park Puzzle that we bought on vacation. We picked it together and even that is a piece of the memory now. I guess that’s what they mean with being fully present. You pick it consciously with a nice evening in mind, the theme interests you (we are actually a little outdoorsy, so the national park theme attracted us), and then you actually have the family evening, you had in mind, maybe with a glass of redwine.
Here is the other thing that might surprise you. Once you do a project like a puzzle with your partner, you practice problem solving as a team. We are both very efficiency and progress driven and maybe even a little competitive, so we have to be a little careful not to over strategize on it. Currently we are doing 500 piece puzzles but I think we could do 1000 as well. My point is: you learn a lot about yourself, your partner and your relationship and how you work together. It’s fun. It’s life. You can do it at home and it’s absolutely inexpensive.
I hope you have a great time and create some memories!
If you’re not sure where to start, here are some links to puzzles I either purchased or that are high on my list:
Disney Puzzle Little Mermaid (1000 pieces), Disney Puzzle Cinderella (1000 pieces), Disney Classics (2000 pieces), Marvel Avengers (100 pieces), Panda Bears (56 pieces), Polar Bear and Seal (75 pieces), Planets and World Map (2 x 100 pieces), Map of USA (70 pieces), Mermaid (128 pieces), Fox and Babies (1000 pieces), Frozen (100 pieces), Highland Cow (1000 pieces), Animal Circle (150 pieces), Encanto Family (500 pieces), EXIT Puzzle Escape Room (919 pieces), Sunset Valley (1000 pieces), Radiant Jungle (1000 pieces), Tiger Lounge (1000 pieces), Observation Forest (40 pieces), Panorama Dinosaurs (100 pieces), Bear Party (54 pieces), Flowers of the USA (1000 pieces), Circle of Color Desserts (500 pieces)