Jigsaw Puzzles

Today, along with a Maggi Super Saver pack, there was this Popeye Jigsaw Puzzle. It was pretty cool. It reminded me of the times when I was in Primary School and how I wanted to have a huge Jigsaw Puzzle and how I wanted to be the fastest puzzle solver.

Ths jigsaw puzzles are believed to have been invented in Eurpoe in early part of the 16th century. People say that the map makers in Europe would paste the maps on card baord and cut them into pieces to help children learn about maps. What started as an educational tool soon developed into a famous past time.

A detailed discussion on the history can be found at http://www.jigsaw-puzzle.org/jigsaw-puzzle-history.html
and http://www.oldpuzzles.com/history.htm.

Few websites that allow you to register for free and play with Jigsaw Puzzles
online are http://www.jigzone.com, http://www.jigsawland.com,
http://www.dltk-kids.com/puzzle.htm, http://www.freejigsawpuzzles.com
and http://www.alljigsawpuzzles.co.uk. These were the top 5 results returned when searched for "Jigsaw Puzzles" on www.Google.com.

So what is it about Jigsaw Puzzles that keeps people fixed to them? I know of a lot of pass time activities, they sound very sound to start with and as time progresses, people seem to loose interest in them. But Jigsaw Puzzles? NO,people don’t just leave the puzzles without completing them.

How would Jigsaw Puzzles help someone?
Eye for Detail: I would say that if someone were solving the puzzles for a long time, he would have excellent eye for detail. All the time spent in selecting a piece from a heap of other mixed pieces and trying to put it in a right place, A person would indeed develop the eye for detail. People would, by habit, be very attentive and would look for everything before they make a move.

Team Play: Jigsaw Puzzles can be lot of fun to solve when done in groups. Although I haven’t had an opportunity to do it but I would definitely love to do it sometime. I just need to find a few like-minded people. When you are solving a puzzle, you are in a team trying to reach a common goal. A well-defined common goal wherein you try to help your team mates to find a particular piece, a particular part of the picture and gradually the complete picture.