I was often a little bit puzzled by my preschooler, but that’s not what this is about. No, I’m talking puzzles. Little wooden or cardboard doodads that your preschooler plays with, that’s what I’m talking about. Puzzles and building toys like Legos are important for your child’s spatial development, and recognizing the shapes of objects in space is an important pre-reading skill.
My preschooler was never all that keen on puzzles. She is not a particularly spatially-oriented child. Yet we did play with puzzles a little, and at five years old she has now discovered that she enjoys playing them on the computer. If this prevents her from trying to slam the pieces into the wrong holes in frustration, so be it.
Shape sorters are a very basic puzzle that toddlers often have. As long as these interest your preschooler, use them. Recognizing shapes is an important pre-reading skill, and the shape sorter encourages recognition of shapes in a fun and playful way.
I like the chunky wooden puzzles from Melissa and Doug. Some of these puzzles have a cheat sheet underneath. They show the picture of the puzzle piece so that children have an extra hint about where the piece needs to go. Later, these puzzles graduate to blank pieces so that your child can match the shape rather than the picture.
Eventually, you can graduate to puzzles that you take apart and put back together, just like the adult puzzles. For a spatially-inclined child, this might happen around age four. For a child who is not so interested, well, we’re still waiting. Choose puzzles with just a few pieces, under ten pieces to start, and work up.
If your preschooler is frustrated by real life puzzles, online literacy games like Starfall and Literactive also have puzzles that are connected to their games.
Do you have a puzzle crazy preschooler? What are your preschooler’s favorite puzzles?
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