18 best logic and puzzle games and apps for kids

Fill the grid so no number repeats, using math clues in each cage. Free daily puzzles from 3x3 for beginners. It was created by a Japanese math teacher.

Watch for: Ads on the free site.

Classic Sudoku at many difficulty levels, on the web or as an app. Good for building patience and logic. Mistakes are flagged, which helps beginners.

Watch for: Lots of ads, especially in the app.

Free chess with puzzles, lessons and practice against the computer. No ads, no upsells. The puzzle trainer adjusts to each player, and the learn section teaches each piece from scratch.

Watch for: Turn on Kid mode to hide chat.

Chess lessons, puzzles and games designed for children, with a closed, kid-safe community. Video lessons with fun coaches teach openings, tactics and endgames at a kid's level, and puzzles come with hints.

Watch for: Free tier is limited; premium unlocks most content.

Guide a small princess through impossible, Escher-like buildings. Calm, gorgeous and about perspective and spatial reasoning. There is no fail state and no timer, which suits anxious kids.

Watch for: Which store sells which game has changed; check before buying.

Push word blocks to change the rules of the level. One of the smartest puzzle games ever made. ESRB: Everyone. It teaches thinking outside the box.

Watch for: Later levels are very hard.

Nonogram puzzles: use number clues to fill in squares and reveal a picture. ESRB: Everyone. Puzzles start small and grow, and each finished one shows a picture.

Tiny cube-shaped levels you rotate to find the path to a star. Spatial puzzles young kids can handle. ESRB: Everyone. A second player can help on the same screen, which makes it a good parent-and-kid game.

Guide little blue creatures through logic puzzles about sorting, patterns and testing ideas. A remake of a 1990s classic. Kids test ideas and learn from mistakes.

Roll round characters through mazes with jelly, balloons and gears. Early physics and logic for small kids. Levels grow slowly, so kids rarely get stuck for long.

Watch for: Paid app; check the price in your app store.

Portals, momentum and lasers make for clever physics puzzles, and the co-op mode is great with a parent. ESRB: Everyone 10+. It is cheap on sale.

Watch for: Mild fantasy violence and some scary moments.

Push boxes that contain other boxes, including themselves. A mind-bending puzzle about recursion. Each idea is introduced gently, then twisted in clever ways that make kids gasp when they figure them out.

Watch for: Gets hard; best for puzzle-loving tweens.

Logic puzzles like Minesweeper where every move can be reasoned out, no guessing. Cheap and calm. It teaches careful reasoning without any time pressure, and puzzles take just a few minutes each.

Draw subway lines for a growing city and keep passengers moving. Network planning in a simple, quiet game. It is quiet and calm to play.

Free daily logic puzzles of many types, from nonograms to slitherlink. A good sampler. Kids can try each type at an easy level, and printable versions work well for screen-free days.

Watch for: Some ads appear on the free site.

Free printable Sudoku, KenKen-style and word puzzles, in kid-friendly sizes. Perfect for car trips. Puzzles come in easy to hard levels, and the kid-size grids are big enough for little hands with pencils.

The sliding-car traffic-jam puzzle, with challenge cards from beginner to expert. Screen-free. It is a good solo game for quiet time, and there is a junior version for younger kids.

Wooden blocks and a booklet of challenges: build the path for the knight. A first logic puzzle. Picture solutions in the back let kids check their own work.