A maze puzzle looks harmless enough: a board, a handful of route pieces and a ball that has to get from start to finish. Yet your child will sit there for twenty minutes, frowning, sliding pieces around, trying again. That is exactly what makes it good. In this guide you will read what your child is actually doing during a maze game, from what age it works and how to get more out of it at home without it turning into homework.

What is a maze puzzle exactly?

With a maze puzzle, also called a route or labyrinth game, your child gets a challenge card with a starting point and an end point. The route in between has to be built or turned into place, using fixed and loose pieces on the board. Only when the way is right does the ball or the little car roll all the way through.

The difference with an ordinary jigsaw is the feedback. A jigsaw is either finished or not. With a maze game you see straight away where it goes wrong: the ball gets stuck at that one bend. So your child can see for itself what does not add up yet, without you having to say whether it is right.

What your child is practising while playing

Thinking ahead in steps

To build the route, your child has to look a few moves ahead. Where does the ball come in, which way does it roll then, and what happens if that piece turns a quarter turn? That is thinking in if-then steps, the same kind of reasoning that comes back later in maths and in coding.

Spatial awareness

Pieces only fit in a certain position. Your child turns, looks, turns back. That builds a feel for shapes and directions, something that is much harder to practise on paper than with real pieces in your hands.

Staying calm when it does not work

This may well be the biggest gain. With a maze game a failed attempt is not a mistake but information. The ball went left, so that bend has to change. Children who go through that a few times are less likely to give up on the next challenge.

Concentration in short blocks

One challenge often takes only a few minutes. That is manageable, even for a child who cannot sit still for long after school. And because there is always a next card ready, those short blocks string themselves together.

From what age does a game like this work?

Three and four year olds can join in fine with the easiest cards, often still next to you at the table. Around the age of five it starts to work on their own, and between six and eight it gets really interesting, because that is when children pick the harder levels themselves.

That is why the maze puzzle board game with 118 challenges has four difficulty levels. Your child starts with a route of two pieces and slowly works up to cards that make you look twice as well. Suitable from 3 years, with a build-up in difficulty that suits children of roughly 4 to 8 years best. The manual is included, so you and your child can start straight away.

How to get more out of it at home

• Let your child find the mistake. Do not say where it goes wrong, ask where the ball got stuck. The answer usually follows by itself.
• Start a level too easy. A few quick successes give far more appetite to carry on than the hardest card straight away.
• Leave an unsolved card out. Come back to it later in the day and the solution often turns up within a minute.
• Play along now and then. Ask your child to explain how it worked out the route. Explaining out loud sharpens the thinking more than one more card does.
• Keep it short. Two or three challenges in an afternoon is plenty. Stopping while it is still fun means the box comes out again tomorrow.

Other games with the same kind of thinking

There is more than one way to puzzle with shapes. With a tangram set with magnetic shapes your child copies animals and figures from an example, which asks for just as much careful looking as a maze does. If you want something without right or wrong, loose magnetic tiles are a nice change: your child simply builds whatever is in its head, from 3 years. For children from 6 years who would rather make something they can take with them, a 3D pen is a fun next step.

Frequently asked questions

From what age is a maze puzzle suitable?

From 3 years, although at that age you will still be watching along and picking out the cards. The build-up in difficulty suits children of roughly 4 to 8 years best. Check the age marking on the packaging of every game.

Will my child do better at school because of it?

That is not a promise we make. What you do see is your child practising with thinking ahead, with shapes and with carrying on when something does not work first time. Those are things it also runs into at school, but a game stays a game.

How long does a game like this stay fun?

That depends mostly on the number of challenges and the levels. With 118 challenges across four levels your child can keep growing into it for months, because the harder cards only get interesting once the easy ones are done.

Is the toy safe?

All the toys we sell meet EN71, the European safety standard for toys. Stick to the age marking as well, and stay nearby with young children as long as there are small parts on the table.

Fancy starting this afternoon? Put the board on the table with one card on it and say nothing more. There is a good chance your child will sit down before you have to ask. Have a look at the educational toys from Fits4Kids and pick something that suits your child's age.