A few weeks ago I was over at my bosses house for a charity euchre night.  While waiting for play to start, I spent some time with his daughter observing her complete a puzzle.  In the puzzle she had to draw a line connecting dots, where each dot was associated with a letter from the alphabet.  I've also recently watched my niece with puzzle book at her house where she has to fill in the missing number in a sequence.

At some age puzzles seems to take a backseat to other things and dissapear entirely in the worst case.

This past Sunday while at Target, I found myself in the toy department searching for a Rubik's cube.  It might have been to test myself or simply to recapture my youth.  I remember playing and solving one as a child at my grandparents.  My method to solving it was much like yours most likely, move the stickers.  (It's not cheating, it's thinking outside the box.)

After taking it out the package and spending some time with it, I've solved it a few times now through completely legal methods.  Even after solving it, it intrigues me.  I find myself thinking about the position of square and what the outcome of moves would be on the cube.

While it's still just a game, and may not have the same immediate benefits of learning letters and numbers like the aformentioned toddlers, I'm hoping that by thinking accutely my brain is just slightly sharper.  Even if the benefit is temporal, I am enjoying the puzzle.