puzzle question(s) ... please help

[Babywhite]

DD loves her peg puzzles, but I think it is time to move on to some more challenging ones.

After doing some research here, I have found several other types of puzzles. I'm embarrassed to say that I have never heard of most of these puzzles. As a child, I had peg puzzles and regular cardboard jigsaw puzzles...

Please help me identify what these puzzles look like and where to buy them. Also, please help me to put them in the 'correct' order. I know that kids do the peg puzzles first... :)

Different Types of Puzzles for Kids:
peg puzzles, Lauri rubber type puzzles, wooden inlaid puzzles, jigsaws in a box (Melissa and Doug), border jigsaw puzzles,
24 piece wooden puzzles, ravensburger puzzles, and
jigsaw puzzles (I'm assuming this is refering to the original cardboard puzzles???)

TIA for your help!!

R.W.

[Raidra]

We have wooden inlaid puzzles from Lakeshore Learning and from Melissa and Doug. AC Moore carries the M&D inlaid fire truck and train. I looked on Lakeshore Learning the other day, but couldn't find the same sort of puzzles I bought from them.. dunno if I was looking in the wrong spot or if they stopped carrying them.

I also bought some M&D Mix and Match puzzles from Kidsurplus.com. They're just pictures of animals, and the back legs are the puzzle pieces. They're all the same shape/size, so you can put the horse legs on the turtle body, and so on. I like them because Colwyn has to pay attention to the pictures on the pieces rather than just which ones will fit. There are a few on each puzzle that are pretty similar. He also gets a kick out of me putting them in wrong, and him fixing them all.

We got some easy jigsaw puzzles from Barnes and Noble (they come in a box, in the board book section), and random places like Target and the grocery store. We get the ones with 24 pieces or so.

Hope that helps a bit. :)

[Babywhite]

When you are say "easy jigsaw puzzles from Barnes and Noble" -- you're talking about the ones that are made out of cardboard, right?

TIA :)

[ett]

Lauri puzzles - http://www.kidsurplus.com/lau2016.html , http://www.kidsurplus.com/lau2124.html - Here's two from Kidsurplus. There's a bunch more if you do a search. My local independent toy stores also carry them.

wooden inlaid puzzles - http://www.schylling.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SD&Product_Code=WP100&Category_Code=SCP-P
My local toys store carry them and I've also seen them at Marshalls and TJ Maxx.

Melissa and Doug jigsaws in a box - http://www.creativebrainsonline.com/medoboxpu.html - I see these all the time at Marshalls and TJ Maxx. AC Moore and TRU also carry them.

border jigsaw puzzles - http://www.creativebrainsonline.com/medojipu.html - The M&D ones that I've seen are made from wood and range from 12 to 48 pieces. I think this is what people mean when they say 24 piece wooden puzzles. I've seen them at local toy stores, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, AC Moore.

Ravensburger puzzles - They're a German company that makes lots of puzzles and games. We have some of their stuff - great quality and very reasonably priced. www.kidsurplus.com carries them, but www.stewarttoys.com has the best selection that I've seen online. My local toy stores also carry them.
http://www.stewarttoys.com/category/ravensburger.ravensburger_childrens_puzzles/
They do make a couple of peg puzzles, but they have way more cardboard frame puzzles, and cardboard jigsaw puzzles.

When people mention jigsaw puzzles, I think they could be talking about either the wooden jigsaws or the cardboard jigsaws.

After DS became good with the peg puzzles, I bought him a couple of the wooden inlaid puzzles from Lakeshore Learning. He could do them with assistance, but was never really interested in them. Then a couple of months ago, I took out some 24 piece floor puzzles for some older kids to do, and DS insisted he wanted to do them to. To my surprise, he could actually do them with assistance.

HTH!

[Raidra]

Yes, they're in a red and white box, and cardboard.

[Babywhite]

Are floor puzzles -- large cardboard jigsaw puzzles? :)

TIA
R.W.

[ett]

Yes, the floor puzzles are large cardboard jigsaw puzzles. They're usually 2 x 3 feet, except for the ones that are shapes of cars, trucks, etc. The pieces of the 48 piece puzzles are half the size of the 24 piece puzzles.

[Momof3Labs]

Floor puzzles are great! That's what DS1 moved to after he mastered peg puzzles; he was doing 24 piece floor puzzles around the time of his second birthday.

[MamaKath]

As she gets older there are some great "puzzles" involving shapes and mats. Discovery toys had/has a great set which has cards and you use the foam shape blocks to fill in the picture. Like tangrams

Also household things like a bin of colorful socks that she can match, empty jars and their lids to match up, even old colored baby bottles and the matching colored matching rings. These all build the skills that puzzles do while using some small motor skills in a different manner. :-)

HTH~