Tot School Tuesday: Puzzles

Zeke has really gotten obsessed with puzzles lately. He has always enjoyed puzzles, but the past few months he has been working puzzles like crazy! I need to get him some new ones soon. Teaching toddlers how to work puzzles is such an important skill - critical thinking, problem solving, visual discrimination, and fine motor just to name a few!

Age 1

When Zeke was a year old, he had several Melissa and Doug puzzles. These puzzles had around three or four pieces, each with chunky handles that he could grip easily. I would help him put the puzzles in the correct slots at first, and eventually he would remember where each piece went. It helps when the puzzles have a picture in the slot of what the puzzle piece looks like - then it's just picture matching! Here are few puzzles that we had and loved:

Age 2

When he was around two years old, we began working harder puzzles. They were still wooden, and mostly Melissa and Doug because their quality is fabulous. There are so many different themes of puzzles - alphabet, numbers, animals, anything you could want. We have tons of puzzles that he loved to work. Again, most of these were picture matching. The manipulation to get the small pieces in the slots is a great fine motor work out! We would use these in many ways, including learning words, numbers, and letters. He still uses his alphabet and number puzzles but has moved on from this style for the most part. Here are a few that we had and loved:

When he was nearing three, I introduced two piece puzzles to him. He loves these puzzles! They were usually matching colors, shapes, numbers, or pictures. At first I would put the two pieces beside each other and he would fit them together. This showed him how the jigsaw puzzles work. He learned how to arrange them so they would go together. Then I started mixing up three or four of these two-piece puzzles for him to figure out which ones went with which. This was great for beginning puzzle skills! Here are a few of the puzzles I bought. I got most of these from TJ Maxx for around $5 a set, but they are also available on Amazon.

Age 3

Now that he is older and the wooden puzzles were no longer a challenge for him, I started buying some 12 and 16 piece puzzles on cardboard boards from the Dollar Store (the only place I can find them). It was more challenging for him to work these puzzles, especially since there is no picture to go by! However, I would help him with it the first several times and then he could do them on his own. Now we have started buying some of the 24 piece puzzles in the boxes, and he can do these puzzles on his own! I always do it with him the first two or three times, and once he gets a grasp on what the picture looks like he doesn't need help. I've tried teaching him about edge and corner pieces to help him get started, and I think he's starting to understand that concept. 

As Zeke gets older, his puzzles will get harder and more advanced. For his birthday this fall, I'm planning to purchase some large floor puzzles that I think he will really enjoy! What sort of puzzles do your children enjoy?