Puzzles for a Toddler

Our kids are 23 months and 3.5 years. They love the Melissa and Doug 24 piece (and larger) puzzles. Our son's been working with a few for about 18 months, and they've held-up well and not lost his interest. You can get similar ones at Target (I believe they're the Circo brand) and Walmart.

Have you tried the Melissa and Doug puzzles? We have several kinds of those and the kids love them. Learning Curve and Shilling also have good puzzles that aren't just the peg style. One of the Melissa and Doug puzzles has cubes and you can put together 6 different pictures, theres like 12 cubes.

There are nice puzzles by Michelle & Doug which I've often found at places like T.J. Maxx, Ross, Marshall's, etc., or Target has a variety of puzzles for all ages. My kids LOVED puzzles & I just kept feeding that in them (they're in the Gifted class - because of puzzles? maybe). I was happy to read last year that when children work on puzzles it encourages connections among the synapses which helps brain development (yadda yadda - lots of scientific evidence); short story: puzzles are good.

Melissa & Doug make some fantastic 12-48+ piece wooden jig saw puzzles. My son started working with them before 2 and still loves them going on 3 years. They are wooden and often come in sets. One that we have has four animals each is a 12 piece puzzle. You can get these as specialty stores like Ages and Stages in Arvada or Childish Things in Boulder.

probably a 12 piece cardboard puzzle would be perfect! I bought some (2 for $1!!) at Walgreens at Christmas time... they were christmas themed. maybe they have some Easter ones now? or the dollar store has 25 piece puzzles which are good for this age, but I'm sure she'll need some help. I also bought a wooden puzzle with 4 12-piece animal puzzles in it. kind of like this http://www.melissaanddoug.com/dyn_prodlist.php?k=86070

AC Moore should have lots of Melissa and Doug puzzles.

Try "tangrams."
They are great!
My kids were both doing these puzzles from 2 years old and enjoy it a lot & they understood it, even though these are usually for older kids.
I HIGHLY recommend these.

They have versions for kids and adults. Go online at like Amazon, and they have them. The brand "Think Fun" makes a good one for kids too. Which you can also find on Amazon... just put in the search word "tangrams for kids."

Good luck,
Susan

It looks like many people have already said what I was going to say. Melissa and Doug. They have a website www.melissaanddoug.com but they have 12piece puzzles, big ones, small ones, and my kids LOVE them. We started buying them when my oldest ones (now 4 and 5) were 2 and 3 and they still use them

my son was the same. he LOVED puzzles and could easily do them at age 2. We just started getting the regular puzzles that are 25 pieces or less (he loved thomas the tank engine and there were lots of those) using the ones with less pieces and showing how he could look at the front of the box to figure out what the picture looked like made it easier for him. Good luck, I'm sure she'll love doing them all, no matter what kind you buy.

HI M.,

We have some really great foam puzzles that are shapes that fit together to form animals. They were given to us, so I have no idea where to purchase them, but you could look online.

I agree with everyone else about the Melissa and Doug puzzles in the box with 6 different ones.

Good luck!

I would just buy the regular kids puzzles at Target, Walmart, etc. I would stay under 25 pieces to start and then keep moving up in size.

My daughter has a neat melissa and doug set she likes. It isn't exactly a puzzle but it has five different shapes (square, oval, diamond...) I'm sure you played with them when you were little.The kit came with the blocks and five two sided pictures made out of the shapes. You lay the shapes on top to make the picture. Not exactly a puzzle but lots of fun. I got it at toys r us.

My daughter love the 24 - 70 piece puzzles you can get right at Target for 3.99 - 4.99. They have her favorite characters on them and are cheap enough to get them every so often.

Ravensberger has nice childrens puzzles that you purchase based on the number of pieces. They start more simply for younger children (24 pieces for example) and go up from there. They offer age recommendations for the different piece counts, to help in your decision making. My 3 yr old son is moving from 24 to 50+ piece versions while my 7 yr old daughter is doing 300 and 500 piece ones. They are available online or through nicer toy stores in my experience.

Melissa and doug have some cute puzzles or you might try Epic Games in the Taylorsville area if you are in utah.

My son loves puzzles too and all that are suggested below he really enjoys especially Melissa & Doug. There are also puzzles by the author Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar). My son’s favorite is the big floor puzzles however. The one he puts together and takes a part everyday is the big floor puzzle of the U.S. Map which I got him when he was about 3. He loves figuring out where each state is and then we talk about a fact from each state or where grandma & grandpa live for example. We even use his toy airplanes to pretend to fly around to visit family! Now we race to see who can put the puzzle together the quickest! He just never gets bored with it. There is also the big floor puzzles that are 2 sided with the second side being a black & white dup of the front so that kids can color it in. Have fun!!!!

I saw them at Walmart. They come in a package of (I think) 3 for preschoolers. I almost bought them. Might be what you're looking for. Of course, if you are one of the people that hate Walmart, forget I said anything.:)

My daughter loves the Usborne Jigsaw books, the first one we got was the counting train that you lay out on the floor and it makes a train with animals in it, and it goes back nicely into the book for clean up which I love. we then did the alphabet rainbow, then she moved on to the jigsaw books there are some with 2 pieces in the page but she preferred the 5 piece ones even when she was 2. we love the fairy tale one now, you can put the puzzle together outside the book or in the book, she likes in the book because you match the picture to the picture behind the puzzle (if that makes any sense) they've been our favorites. we have a few others as well but she gravitates to the Usborne ones, and so did I. I haven't been selling much the past couple of years because of where we have been in life but maintain my website for the friends/family I have that still like to order if you want to check it out its www.celestsbooks.com you can see if that is what you are looking for or not.

I have a 3 year old who is the same way. I was luncky enough to find some at a consignment /thrift store but also online at Lakeshorelearningstore.com
hope this helps.

we get the jigsaw puzzles at the dollar store they have 25 pieces and some have 50 plus pieces. Both my kids love them and they have characters on them

I second the Melissa and Doug block puzzle that makes 6 different puzzles. My 28 month old has it and LOVES it! The have a great website!

I would go with the regular 25 piece puzzles. You might have to help her a little, or explain more how they work, but she'll get it in no time. The other thing my son loves is the giant floor puzzles. He has a huge dinosaur one that we have to put together at least once a week. The pictures on the pieces are big enough that you'll have say, a head on one piece, body on one, tail on one.

My favorite sources include: oompa.com, blueberryforest.com, forsmallhands.com and montessoriservices.com, novanaturals.com, rosiehippo.com and sometimes magiccabin.com. The first couple especially often have amazing inlay puzzles, including a terrific multi-layered one of the body, and some 3-D puzzles of animals that fit together upright, not in a board. Have fun!