Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Toddler's First Puzzles!

My 2.5 year old daughter sees me working on puzzles all the time and wants to try it out for herself. So I figure, why not? Brain food and good practice for hand-eye coordination and control.

I bought her JOYTOY'S Spelling Fun set, which contains 16 3-piece puzzles. The puzzle pieces are large and easy to handle. Best of all, each piece corresponds to a letter that spells out the word depicted by the puzzle such as D-O-G, C-A-T, P-I-E, S-U-N, etc. What better way to introduce your little one to basic words and spelling?

My baby took to this puzzle set immediately and it was also quite a hit with the other toddlers in the playroom. I started by laying out one puzzle at a time and teaching her how to properly fit the pieces together. Once she mastered one puzzle, I began to mix the puzzle pieces for 3 different puzzles for her to distinguish and build, one puzzle at a time. The next day, I gave her a mix of 4 puzzles and so on until she can identify and build a mix of at least a dozen of the puzzles.

Eventually, I bought her a 4-in-1 puzzle that consists of a 3-piece, 4-piece, 5-piece, and 6-piece puzzle to increase her level one step at a time. She is now able to dump all of the puzzle pieces and rebuild it on her own.

JOYTOY Spelling Fun costs less than P200 for the whole box of 16 puzzles. I bought it at SM department store. There's also a 4-letter-word set available to start introducing tots to C-A-K-E and D-U-C-K.

4-in-1 puzzle sets are usually found alongside party favors and are a good deal at only P50!

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3 comments:

  1. If you are looking for a jigsaw for even younger toddlers (12 months - 2years) a great starter puzzle is the one that won the Dr. Toy Best Vacation Award and Dr. Toy Best Green Award this year (www.drtoy.com). It's a wood puzzle so it's durable, the pieces are really big and easy for this age to handle, and the pieces are interchangeable so it doesn't matter which pieces your toddler grabs - any two will connect. It's the First Jigsaw Puzzle - Square by Young Minds At Play.

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