what kind of puzzles

daisy · Guru

what kind of puzzles

supergrover · Guru

We have an insane number of puzzles. The kids go through spells of loving them.

Koda likes doing the 24-30 piece puzzles on his own (regular, cardboard puzzles).
He loves doing the jumbo floor puzzles with Travis or I. They are a little too big for him to visualize without a little help still.

We buy puzzles for .50 each at Salvation army. I can't pay full price when I know pieces, over time, are going to get lost. I just open the box and count the pieces while I am there to make sure none are missing. So far, so good.

To save on space (the boxes take up so much room) we bought ziploc bags with the plastic zipper thing on top. We cut out the picture from the box and put the pieces in the ziploc. It keeps boxes from accidentally opening and the pieces getting mixed up, and lets me toss them all in a much larger tupperware container.

We go through spurts, but I love them because it encourages fine motor skills for Koda, and area we are always looking to work on.

We are also asking for the Melissa and Doug See and Spell wooden puzzle for Tristen for Christmas. We think he will love that one.

-- Edited by supergrover on Sunday 27th of September 2009 08:20:19 AM

happylib · Guru

We just recently started really doing puzzles to work on E's fine motor skills, but I am sure she is probably not as advanced as most on here. But I did find a great way to try out puzzles. We have a toy lending library here and it has puzzles (among other things). You can check out a puzzle, toy, etc for 3 weeks. It costs nothing and it's nice with things like puzzles that they master and become less appealing.

Corey · Guru

we love the big melissa & doug floor puzzles. i know you said your dad likes benney's and they have tons of them there for 7.99/each.

muffy · Guru

clara has always super loved puzzles. (i have some puzzle games on my iphone and she loves those too - like the tangram one)

she can knock through a 49-50 piece puzzle no problem. for her birthday in july we got her two 100 piece puzzles - one hello kitty and one cinderella one. she can do those herself as well - i just have to be careful when choosing a 100 piece puzzle that the design is big and bold so the pieces have a chance to look different - and she props up the box so that she can see the finished picture as reference. also with a big one, i help her in the beginning to turn over all the pieces and if possible we group them by colours - then she starts with a point she likes and she builds from there.

most evenings while i am cooking dinner, she hangs with me in the kitchen and does puzzles while i cook :)

do you guys have ravensburger in the US - they make excellent quality puzzles.

Juni · Guru

We have bought a ton at the dollar store but I still prefer the ones that are about 3.99 or so at kohls or walmart. We use the 30% off at kohls and get a pretty good deal. I have found the ones at the dollar store are pretty crappy quality.

Honestly, Gavin wasn't super into puzzles until a few months ago. Owen is OBSESSED. Like, obsessed with puzzles. It is unbelievable. So he started to keep up with him and now they both love them. We are working on 100 piece puzzles - he isn't quite there to do it by himself but he has the hang on the 50 piece puzzles.

Owen can do the 25 piece ones all by himself and the other day my mom caught him doing one upside down - like you couldn't see the pictures, just the cardboard colored side and he did the whole thing! He is amazing with puzzles. I am excited to see where he is at when he is Gavin's age now. But, it's sort of his thing so he is doing it a lot of the time.

I would definitely try the 25 piece puzzles - I bet she gets the hang of it in no time!

Sonya · Guru

muffy wrote:

clara has always super loved puzzles. (i have some puzzle games on my iphone and she loves those too - like the tangram one)

she can knock through a 49-50 piece puzzle no problem. for her birthday in july we got her two 100 piece puzzles - one hello kitty and one cinderella one. she can do those herself as well - i just have to be careful when choosing a 100 piece puzzle that the design is big and bold so the pieces have a chance to look different - and she props up the box so that she can see the finished picture as reference. also with a big one, i help her in the beginning to turn over all the pieces and if possible we group them by colours - then she starts with a point she likes and she builds from there.

most evenings while i am cooking dinner, she hangs with me in the kitchen and does puzzles while i cook :)

do you guys have ravensburger in the US - they make excellent quality puzzles.

This sounds like Charlie. We haven't done them in a while but he could do a 48 piece puzzle pretty easily when we were doing them more frequently.

Ravenburger are the best puzzles. Expensive but the quality is so amazing. The pieces fit together perfectly and the pictures are great.

I'll have to dig out some puzzles and let the kids at them again.

LucsMama · Senior Member

Lucas super duper loves puzzles, which is new to me because I HATE them. He easily does 50 piece puzzles by himself. We also put them in ziploc bags with the picture cut out. So much easier to store then a bunch of boxes!

I too have also learned that the cheapie puzzles usually suck. So I usually try to keep myself from buying them from the dollar bin at Target or the dollar store.

muffy · Guru

Sonya wrote:

muffy wrote:

clara has always super loved puzzles. (i have some puzzle games on my iphone and she loves those too - like the tangram one)

she can knock through a 49-50 piece puzzle no problem. for her birthday in july we got her two 100 piece puzzles - one hello kitty and one cinderella one. she can do those herself as well - i just have to be careful when choosing a 100 piece puzzle that the design is big and bold so the pieces have a chance to look different - and she props up the box so that she can see the finished picture as reference. also with a big one, i help her in the beginning to turn over all the pieces and if possible we group them by colours - then she starts with a point she likes and she builds from there.

most evenings while i am cooking dinner, she hangs with me in the kitchen and does puzzles while i cook :)

do you guys have ravensburger in the US - they make excellent quality puzzles.

This sounds like Charlie. We haven't done them in a while but he could do a 48 piece puzzle pretty easily when we were doing them more frequently.

Ravenburger are the best puzzles. Expensive but the quality is so amazing. The pieces fit together perfectly and the pictures are great.

I'll have to dig out some puzzles and let the kids at them again.

i have ravenburger puzzles i kept from timmy - so they are at least a decade old! the pieces are so sturdy - and so are the boxes. i know a lot of you put them in zip=locs as well - i do too for travel, but for these i keep the boxed and store them with the zip bags in the boxes because the boxes store so well and if they are in a storage box or on a shelf i can easily see what puzzle it is.

daisy · Guru

wow, i'm so excited about this whole thing.
i cant believe it's like a whole new world of toys for us. she was just sooo not interested until JUST now.
i think she'd be ready for a 24-48 piece puzzle.
i'm going to pick up a hello kitty one today.
i was going to wait till christmas but whatever, that's a long time from now.
i cant believe owen's puzzle skills - i dont think i could even do a puzzle with no pictures!!
cant wait to go to the toystore today :)

muffy · Guru

daisy wrote:

wow, i'm so excited about this whole thing.
i cant believe it's like a whole new world of toys for us. she was just sooo not interested until JUST now.
i think she'd be ready for a 24-48 piece puzzle.
i'm going to pick up a hello kitty one today.
i was going to wait till christmas but whatever, that's a long time from now.
i cant believe owen's puzzle skills - i dont think i could even do a puzzle with no pictures!!
cant wait to go to the toystore today :)

great thin is there are so many to choose from you can get her one now AND some for christmas!

(i love the hello kitty ones because the pictures are so bold - she def. should have success with those!)

Sara · Guru

I need to get some puzzles down. Owen loves them. Bryce does not have the patience for them.

I love the dinner idea of working on a puzzle while it is cooking. Especially with summer winding down and knowing they will not be outdoors all hours of the day.

LucsMama · Senior Member

Sara wrote:

I need to get some puzzles down. Owen loves them. Bryce does not have the patience for them.

I love the dinner idea of working on a puzzle while it is cooking. Especially with summer winding down and knowing they will not be outdoors all hours of the day.

oooohhh the dinner idea is an AWESOME idea! Lucas asks EVERY 5 seconds "is dinner ready yet?... how about now? now?" GRRRRRR

daisy · Guru

muffy wrote:

daisy wrote:

wow, i'm so excited about this whole thing.
i cant believe it's like a whole new world of toys for us. she was just sooo not interested until JUST now.
i think she'd be ready for a 24-48 piece puzzle.
i'm going to pick up a hello kitty one today.
i was going to wait till christmas but whatever, that's a long time from now.
i cant believe owen's puzzle skills - i dont think i could even do a puzzle with no pictures!!
cant wait to go to the toystore today :)

great thin is there are so many to choose from you can get her one now AND some for christmas!

(i love the hello kitty ones because the pictures are so bold - she def. should have success with those!)

i got her a HK floor puzzle (48 pc) and a madeleine smaller one (24 pc). the HK is great, but so big that there ends up being a LOT of white -- so it's like sink or swim. she was pretty good with it, but needed my help on the plain white parts (understandably).

she pounded out the madeleine one no prob. it had a lot more pattern on it.