Choosing a puzzle: how many pieces for which age?

A puzzle is one of the few presents that gets a child and a grandparent sitting at the same table. But compare puzzles and what you mostly see are numbers: 12, 48, 104, 300, 1000. Which number suits which child?

A rough guide to piece counts

There is no fixed rule, and the age shown on the product always comes first. As a starting point, though, this breakdown is useful.

2 to 3 years: wooden inset puzzles and cube puzzles, where each piece is already a recognisable shape or picture in itself.

3 to 4 years: floor puzzles and puzzles with a handful to a few dozen large pieces.

4 to 6 years: between 24 and 60 pieces, often as a maxi puzzle with extra-large pieces.

6 to 8 years: around 100 pieces.

8 to 10 years: 150 to 300 pieces.

From 10 years: 500 pieces, and then the step up to 1000.

A child who does a lot of puzzles soon gets ahead of this. A child who is just starting can happily take a step back: a puzzle that gets finished leaves them wanting another, and one that goes back in the box half-done does not.

The number is not everything

Two puzzles with the same number of pieces can feel very different. A picture with large blocks of colour and clear figures is far easier than a sky, a sea or a forest where every piece looks like the last. Size matters too: a floor puzzle a metre wide in forty pieces is a different thing from forty pieces on a tray. So look at the picture, not only at the number on the box.

And choose a picture the child cares about. A puzzle of a favourite animal or a much-loved cartoon character gets finished sooner than one that leaves them cold; with young children that often weighs more than having exactly the right number of pieces.

From puzzle to brain teaser

For children who would rather solve a challenge ten different ways than put one picture together, there are brain teasers: single-player games with challenges that get steadily harder. Some are made as travel games and come along in the car or on holiday. You will find them under brain teasers.

For adults too

Puzzles of 1000 and 1500 pieces are no longer children’s toys, and they do not need to be. A puzzle that stays on the coffee table for a week becomes a family project: whoever walks past adds a piece. Start with the edges and sort the rest by colour; it saves more time than you would think. The whole range is in the puzzles category, and for the youngest puzzlers 3 to 5 years is a good place to start.