The Best Puzzles for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Assembling Skills That Will Last a Lifetime

Looking for more fun activities to do at home with your young child? Perhaps you want to work on building skills that will last a lifetime, from letter awareness to spatial reasoning and logic. If so, you can’t go wrong with any one of the puzzles on this list. Designed with little hands in mind, each one brings fun and learning together in the shape of puzzles.

Digger Puzzle: Melissa & Doug offer a great line of sturdy 24 piece puzzles that include a wooden frame for easy assembly. Kids can choose from a variety of pictures in the finished product. The wooden pieces hold up to repeated play extremely well, and the bright colors and basic jigsaw shapes help kids learn the basics of puzzle assembly.

When I Grow Up Puzzle: This round puzzle gives kids a glimpse into the world of future careers. We love the various skin tones and multiple genders represented in the finished puzzle. Each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a different type of employment, helping young kids practice their letter skills as well as spatial relations in this circular-shaped floor puzzle.

Fuzzy Puzzles: The fun texture adds another layer to these puzzles. We also love that the large pieces make minimal noise, making them excellent for older siblings to use quietly while younger kids nap. Choose from different scenes, or get multiples and let your child enjoy the felt covered pieces as they assemble their favorite.

Crocodile Creek Puzzles: These beginner puzzles with a limited number of pieces come in a variety of interesting shapes and themes. Find one your child will love, and let them explore assembling a puzzle that doesn’t conform to the standard rectangular shape.

Wooden Cube Puzzle: This puzzle offers six different images to be assembled. The first step? Finding the right pieces! Kids will need to identify which side of each cube belongs to each picture. A helpful color border will guide them for any edge pieces. As an added bonus, these puzzle cubes make great building blocks, too.

Color Me In Puzzle: Instead of worrying about young children marking up puzzle pieces, indulge them with this option. This box includes crayons for kids to color the pieces any way they like. They can add the color before or after assembling the large puzzle pieces made for small hands. The sturdy pieces hold up well to both repeated assembly and lots of decorating.