Puzzle Sort

Lakeshore graciously sent me these puzzles to play with. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Make a mess and fix it with puzzle sort.

Sometimes, it’s all about upping the ante with toddler activities. Puzzle sort is how I turn up the heat with my puzzle loving toddler.

Sam is a puzzle maniac – he could sit and do puzzles all day long. And I love that about him. Puzzles are so great for toddler motor skills, visual scanning, problem solving – oh my stars. Puzzles are the best.

One of my favorite ways to “spice up” puzzle time is “the puzzle dump” which turns into the great Puzzle Sort. I take a few of his favorites (usually no more than 3) and dump them in a giant pile, much to his delight!

We do this all.the.time and it’s a solid hit in our house so I wanted to share it with you today.

For this puzzle sort, we used our Classic Hardwood Learning Toys Set from Lakeshore Learning. These guys are awesome and we are totally in love with them.

I took the three toys and dumped the pieces onto a cookie sheet. There was method to that madness! I like to dump onto a rimmed cookie sheet so pieces don’t go flying or running away from us. Keeps all our ducks in a row and everything nice and together.

I put the boards around the cookie sheet and let my little thinker begin the process of unscrambling this mess. He’s doing so much work here. He’s visually scanning to find the right pieces. He’s sorting. Within each toy, he’s problem solving to put them back together.

This kept Sam busy, happy, and occupied for a solid amount of time. The kind of time that gets dishwashers unloaded and counters wiped down. Magic!

It’s amazing how just a little twist (like mixing up puzzles or games) can bring out so much in an activity. If you have a puzzle loving toddler like I have, you’ve got to try a Puzzle Sort so add a little something special to play time.