Montessori Puzzle Sequence.

Puzzles! It’s no secret that puzzles are important for child development. Puzzles help with concentration, spatial awareness, shape recognition, fine motor ability, hand-eye coordination, problem-solving skills — should I go on?!

Puzzles are also one area where I see a major difference in my children. Javi loves puzzles and always has. It all comes easy to him; spatial awareness, patterns, even the patience to be successful. Lola can’t stand puzzles. They infuriate her! You know that one thing in your life that just puts you in a bad mood? (For me, it’s going to Home Depot.) For my daughter, it’s puzzles! 

So while I could pretty much always give my son any puzzle and he’d complete it, with my daughter I have to be more skill-appropriate. I need to make sure that I’m preparing the environment by providing appropriate materials that set her up for success. I wanted to share the sequence for puzzles (affiliate links at no additional cost to you) that I’ve been following with her, and my youngest, because I think it might be helpful to break down puzzles a bit. It’s easy to think “a puzzle is a puzzle” and the amount of pieces in the puzzle is the only important factor compared to a child’s age. But that’s not always the case! Here’s how I introduce puzzles to my children  —

INFANT/TODDLER:

FITTING THINGS TOGETHER:

Infants love to fit things together and we should let them! This is the first step in their puzzle-journey! Around 8 months, I introduce the egg + cup which is a Montessori-aligned “puzzle” for infants that fulfills this natural curiosity of fitting things together. You can, of course, achieve this with a ball and a bowl, too! Following this, I show the pincer puzzle and ours happens to be from Lovevery.

SINGLE PIECE PUZZLES:

Single piece puzzles are next! This set is great because all 4 shapes (large circle, small circle, square and triangle) are included. I start with the large circle. Once they’ve had practice with the first puzzle — taking out the piece and putting it back in — I’ll put out a second puzzle side by side on the shelf. It’s best to put out different shapes so your child can start discriminating between shapes; so rather than both circles being out at one time do the large circle and the square. Then the square and triangle, etc. 

THREE PIECE PUZZLES:

After practice with single piece puzzles, I put out a 3-piece puzzle WITH knobs. The knobs are key for infants because they need practice with grasping and hand-eye coordination. Having three pieces in the same puzzle allows them to practice matching the shape to the proper inset. If you prefer not to invest in single piece puzzles, you can can opt for this one, remove two puzzle pieces and tape cardboard over the missing shapes — then it’s a single piece puzzle! Then just alternate through the sequence — reveal only the circle, then only the square, then only the triangle, then the circle and the square… and so on! Here are some other 3-piece puzzles: here, here.

LARGE-KNOBBED PUZZLES:

This style is my next go-to! The number of pieces depends on age, interest and skill but I like to start with about 5 pieces and work up to more. A lot of adults prefer that the wood inset be painted the same color as the puzzle piece (the circle puzzles above are like this) — so when a child removes the red circle piece they see a red circle underneath. I actually don’t like that and I don’t recommend it. The reason being a Montessori-aligned material isolates one skill at a time and the goal here is discriminating between the sizes of the circles. By adding colors into the bottom part of the puzzle we’re introducing colors and so it suddenly becomes a color matching activity which isn’t actually the goal! Here are some large knobbed 5-8 piece puzzles: farm, fruit, tools, and wild animals.

CHUNKY PUZZLES:

Next, I go to chunky puzzles. Chunky puzzles are nice to introduce after working with large knobbed puzzles but before moving to peg puzzles. Here are some versions we have: trucks, farm, and shapes. 

PEG PUZZLES:

Peg puzzles are next! The tiny knobs are very attractive to young toddlers. Many of them, for whatever reason, make noise! Just take out the batteries if noise bothers you! Here are some versions: 3 pack, 3 pack, farm.

SELF-CORRECTING PUZZLES:

Next I like to introduce puzzles that have more than 1 piece but that are clearly self-correcting. The puzzle of the cow has 3 pieces: head, body and tail. Since there’s just one image within the puzzle it’s simple, clear and easy on the eyes! This puzzle comes in a box with a whole bunch of separate animal puzzles. I only put out 3 or 4 animals at a time. Here are some other versions: people, things that go, and toys. 

TODDLER/PRESCHOOLERS:

WOODEN JIGSAW PUZZLES:

Now I introduce wooden jigsaw puzzles. To start I use ones with less pieces, and then I’ll use some with a few more pieces but that are in a frame. This helps a child visualize the shape of the entire puzzle and offers a little direction. Melissa and Doug has great 12-piece versions (pictured here — but I only put out one at a time!) Then we work our way up to a puzzle with more pieces; 12, then 24, and so on. Here are some versions: construction, dinosaurs, horse.  

FLOOR PUZZLES:

Floor puzzles are really fun for older toddlers and preschoolers. They’re usually between 30-50 pieces. There is usually a lot of detail in each piece which is helpful for a child to know how to fit the pieces together. Now they look at shape, color, content, edges and put it all together! Working on the floor offers them a chance to use more gross motor muscles and move around a bit while they complete the puzzle. Here are some our favorites: farm, solar system, and dinosaurs.  

COMPOUND PUZZLES:

These puzzles fit together to make one image but they are not yet jigsaw puzzles. They are very popular in typical Montessori classrooms. They have tiny knobs and overall the pieces are quite small and require patience and precision to be successful. Here are some favorites: tree, flower, and leaf.  

JIGSAW PUZZLES:

Then finally, jigsaw puzzles! These are puzzles that fit together to form a scene or an image and they typically have smaller pieces and are done at a table. It’s very important that every piece be unique so that there’s only one way to build the puzzle! Here are some favorites: here and here.

Right now, I have one child who is loving jigsaw puzzles, one who fights her way through floor puzzles and one who is hesitant about large-knobbed puzzles. 🙂

Does your child enjoy puzzles?