Next puzzles?

[vonfirmath]

My son has mastered the traditional wooden puzzles. (one piece per hole, etc). Such that he can do even the ones he's never seen before.

What's generally the next step?

[KrisM]

They were slightly older, closer to 2.5, but my kids liked the big 24 piece floor puzzles. Lots of information per piece to make it easy to match to the other pieces is good.

[baileygirl]

DS enjoyed the M+D frame puzzles starting around that age. I think we started with an 8 piece fire truck puzzle (makes noise when you complete the puzzle) and then started doing 12 piece puzzles in the frame. He moved pretty quickly (i.e. maybe a week) from the fire truck one to 12 piece puzzles. M+D also has a train puzzle that is similar to the fire truck one.

[o_mom]

I would move to the 4-8 piece puzzles where the pieces fit together to make a picture, but not jigsaw pieces - I can't find any online, but we have a bunch of them. You could also look at ones with the pieces integrated in the picture, like this one (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009ETFNU).

[KrisM]

I would move to the 4-8 piece puzzles where the pieces fit together to make a picture, but not jigsaw pieces - I can't find any online, but we have a bunch of them. You could also look at ones with the pieces integrated in the picture, like this one (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009ETFNU).

My kids could not do those because the pieces don't lock together and they had the hardest time! I think they did the floor puzzles first and then those. Funny, huh?

[o_mom]

My kids could not do those because the pieces don't lock together and they had the hardest time! I think they did the floor puzzles first and then those. Funny, huh?

Interesting - mine couldn't get the jigsaw pieces to lock together on a rectangular puzzle! :) All the ones I have like that are in a frame and have 4-8 pieces, we also traced the shape of the piece on the frame if it wasn't there already. It really helped them figure out how to make a picture out of them.

Another one they did like was the floor puzzles that make a long train or snake. That way they didn't have to figure out which way was up or which edge a piece went on.

[caheinz]

I would go for the frame jigsaw puzzles, or maybe floor puzzles next. Maybe get one of each and see which gets more interest?

[ett]

The Lauri puzzles are a big hit with DS2 who has already outgrown peg puzzles.

http://www.liveandlearn.com/lauri/puzzles.html

[wendibird22]

I would move to the 4-8 piece puzzles where the pieces fit together to make a picture, but not jigsaw pieces - I can't find any online, but we have a bunch of them. You could also look at ones with the pieces integrated in the picture, like this one (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009ETFNU).

DD is using these currently. We have about 4 or 5 of them with pictures of faces, bodies, animals, etc. Ours are cardboard and came in sets.

[happymom]

DD isnt up to that yet, but I have beautiful wooden Lakeshore puzzles in my classroom- theyre bright and sturdy. My students master these before they can attempt floor puzzles usually.

Here's an example:
http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca%7CsearchResults~~p%7CGG694~~.jsp