Friday, 16 August 2013

A Wooden Puzzle Game Spans The Generations

By Andrea Davidson


Throughout history toys, games and puzzles have traditionally been crafted from wood. That began to change after World War Two when mass production and cheaper raw materials saw plastics take over those sections of the markets. Yet even today you can still find people happily trying to work out how to complete a traditional wooden puzzle game.

For most people this seems to take them right back to their childhood. Many a child's first toy has been those hand sized, brightly coloured square blocks made from wood. Relatively inexpensive, and nothing for a youngster to hurt themselves on. Many parents still have these blocks lurking at the back of a toy cupboard.

From wood blocks it seems a fairly natural progression to jigsaws made from the same material. The first jigsaws are little more than shapes which requite the child to refit them in the matching recess in the wood board. It then progresses to the more familiar form of jigsaw. All of these puzzles help the young child to learn, and will also improve the hand/eye coordination.

During school vacations many a child has been sent to spend some time with their Grandparents. Typically Grandparents try to make this time as memorable as possible with lots of activities crammed in, yet the weather can soon put paid to carefully laid plans. Now Grandparents are resourceful people and they often overcome the problem of the weather by bringing out your parent's old toys and puzzles.

Despite being raised surrounded by technology there is something quite heart warming about trying to solve the exact puzzle that your parents also tried to fathom out. Due to the material it was made from it will have survived time. Maybe there is a piece which is a different colour and feel to the other pieces. Perhaps this was a piece that your Grandfather had to hand carve when a bit was lost.

Many people feel that young people are only interested in computer games these days, yet surprisingly there seems to be quite a healthy market for these more traditional items. Today things have progressed, and thanks largely to modern manufacturing items no longer need to be carved by hand. The materials used are all of the highest quality, but now they are made much faster.

Many will claim that these games and puzzles frustrate and entertain at the same time. When directed at the 3 dimensional items this is most definitely true. When you first received it, it was complete. So you know that it can be done. You begin by thinking what is all of the fuss about, and then the frustration happens. You were doing so well but you still have all of those pieces left over. However when you do finally finish it all, you have a great feeling of accomplishment.

Many of these items have remained unchanged for over a century, some are comparatively new. Some of these puzzles and games are immediately recognisable, possibly everyone has either seen, or tried, the Towers Of Hanoi. Maybe less familiar will be something called the Soma cube. No matter which wood puzzles you notice someone attempting, you soon get the urge to attempt to solve your own wooden puzzle game.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment