What are your toddler's favorite puzzles??

[aliceinwonderland]

Erik has a couple of cheapo ones (2 animal ones and a geometrical shapes one) from Target, but he does not seem too interested in them. Of course, it's not a requirement that I have a kid who loves puzzles :), but I was wondering if I've missed out on the cool ones all the other kids are playing with ;)

Also, what do you do in regards to counting/numbers?? He seems somewhat interested in letters, and recognizes a couple of them despite our slacker parenting (must be the inherent genius in him rising above his circumstances ;)), but counting as a concept (as opposed to just memorising the symbols for the various numbers) he's not much into...I have been trying to teach him the concept of "two", as he'll be two soon (and it's easy: "one eye, two eyes" etc), but when I ask him how old he'll be he looks at me like he's about to cuss me out in toddler-speak :)

Thanks, mamas :)

[amp]

Our fav puzzles, by far, have been the Lauri Crepe rubber puzzles. They are fantastic!

[mom to little e]

We have a good little stash of puzzles that have been pretty well received. One of our favorites is the Matching Colors and Textures Puzzles by Infantino. Very cute and you can do a lot of different things with it. We also have the Geometric Sorting Board by Brio that is kind of cool. I've seen both recently on sale at babycenter.com

We also have a kind of puzzle that is two cubes - the front end of animals on one cube that you match to the tail end on the other cube and it makes the animal sounds. Again, I think the sounds are kind of funky but he really likes it. I have seen a version of this that has a wooden tray (ours doesn't) that the two cubes fit in which I think would be better to help in matching up the cubes to make the sounds.

We also have a variety of the chunky wooden puzzles from Melissa and Doug with the pictures underneath- one for vehicles, one for farm animals, one of animals that makes animal sounds, and one of the whole alphabet (the pictures are a little funky to me) that he really likes, one with latches and doors, too. It took him a little while to be able to work this one but he will be able to grow with it a little more.

The big thing that seemed to help with letters and numbers were the plain old stick on the fridge magnet letters. We did receive the Leappad Fridge letters that make sounds along with the Letter Factory DVD. I'm not a huge fan of electronic toys or DVDs but I do think they did help and kept his interest. We also had foam letters that stuck on the fridge (big jar from Target for about $5).

Maryann

Ean 11/03
Mia 01/06

[Oregonmother]

Melissa & Doug!!

We like the magnetic fishing one, and the one that has different locks and keys to open with pictures behind it.

[mudder17]

Kaya has both of those and has enjoyed them although she prefers the fishing one to the locks one because the locks one is probably too easy. ;) I'm thinking of putting in pictures of people she knows behind the doors so that when she opens them, she sees their picture. That might be fun.

She also really enjoys the M&D Alphabet puzzle and the M&D My ABC Book. She plays with both of those a lot. Oh, and we got a set of 4 wooden animal puzzles with 4-5 pieces each from Discount School Supply and she really enjoys putting these together. There's a sheep, duck, rooster, and cow. It's the first "real" puzzle that she's been able to put together.

Oh, and a friend of hers has a rubber puzzle that her grandmother got her from Staples or something like that. It's the numbers 1-10 and they're really fun to push out and push back in.


Eileen

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif for Leah
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_sapphire_24m.gif

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catcatcvi20040222_-6_Kaya+is.png
Kaya will be a sister, ~11/14/06!

[Momof3Labs]

Colin has always loved floor puzzles - Melissa & Doug makes a bunch of good ones. These were really the first puzzles he did, obviously with a lot of help.

[Zana]

We just got the 12 pc jigsaw puzzles from M&D (they are only $4.95 each). DS just turned 2, and while he isnt the best at it ;) he does seem to love the concept. We have a few of the peg puzzles and he isnt as engaged by it.

As for numbers, the thing that really got him to understand the concept of counting, was more out of sheer laziness on my part ....I didnt want to keep carrying him up the 3 flights of stairs to our apt :). So we count each step, everyday, morning and evening. We do 1-10 first in English, then in our native language...the poor boy definitely knows his numbers!