Best Puzzle Games for Kids

Puzzle games and brain teasers are the perfect way to get a child's brain going while also providing entertainment. Kids can have fun and increase their thinking power at the same time with games that require problem solving skills. Mazes, labyrinths, riddles, brain teasers, and mechanical puzzles can also teach children patience, hand-eye coordination, and focus.

These games make great gifts for both girls and boys, with varying age level difficulties available. A puzzle game bought in the appropriate age level can provide hours of fun and help to boost a child's confidence.

These are some of the best puzzle games for kids:

These 3-D mazes contained in a transparent sphere require players to maneuver a tiny marble around challenging obstacles. Kids need to twist, roll, and flip the sphere maze to move the marble along the tracks, helping to develop fine motor skills. There is no set-up required, no batteries needed, and no loose pieces requiring cleanup - a parent's dream toy.

Several Perplexus Maze Games are available at varying levels of difficulty including the following:

Perplexus Rookie - (Recommended age: 6-10 years) For Perplexus beginners. Contains 70 barriers.

Perplexus Original - (Recommended age: 6-12 years) Intermediate level. Contains 100 barriers.

Perplexus Epic - (Recommended age: 6-14 years) Difficult level. Contains 125 barriers.

Perplexus Twist - (Recommended age: 7+ years) A new maze that involves twisting and aligning tracks.

This sphere puzzle involves sliding colored strings through slots to untangle knots. The beauty of this puzzle is it can be made either easy or difficult depending on how tangled you initially make the knots. Kids will love creating tangle filled challenges for each other to solve.

For increased difficulty, the colored rubber tips can be sorted by color on each side of the puzzle, while also maintaining untangled strings. Like the Perplexus games, these puzzles are self contained, requiring no cleanup, setup, or batteries. They are perfect for entertainment on road trips or on rainy days.

Brainstring puzzles come in the following models:

Brainstring Original - (Recommended age: 7+ years) This original model is the easiest Brainstring to solve, with 6 sides on the sphere, 24 pegs, and 12 strings.

Brainstring Advanced - (Recommended age: 7+ years) This advanced version is more challenging than the original, containing a greater number of sides on the sphere.

Brainstring R - (Recommended age: 7+ years) This new version involves rotating the entire ball in all directions to untangle the strings in the center.

ThinkFun has a whole collection of exciting mind challenge puzzles, most recommended for kids 8 and up. These brain teasers encourage critical thinking as well as persistence. Some of these games come with multiple pieces (take apart/reassemble puzzles), but batteries are not required.

Here are a few ThinkFun favorites:

Gordians Knot - (Recommended age: 8+ years) This puzzle of six colorful interlocking pieces is a fun challenge. It takes 69 moves to dismantle the puzzle, and a good amount of deductive reasoning to reassemble.

UnHinged - (Recommended age: 8+ years) This puzzle of hinged hexagons gets folded and flipped to achieve 40 challenges. Four challenge levels are included, ranging from beginner to expert, so all levels of puzzle solvers will enjoy.

Block By Block - (Recommended age: 8+ years) This game includes seven brick pieces in varying shapes that can be used to construct up to 60 different structures. Challenge cards give you a structure to build, perfect for refining spatial perception.

36 Cube - (Recommended Age: 8+ years) This simple sounding challenge is surprisingly tricky. Rows of towers are removed from a base, and then the player must replace them following only two rules. First, each row and column can contain only one of each colored tower. Second, each tower must be the same height. This is a game the whole family will enjoy.

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