We have travelled back to my home town for Christmas and bought along with us some new Montessori works. This puzzle was actually a Christmas present.

We love puzzles 🧩 from the pincer grip to the fine motor co-ordination and the visual perception needed.

The feeling of success when you get the puzzle piece to fit.

I’ve got my eye on some more puzzles because I can never resist!

I remembered that I had kept some wooden Christmas craft buttons and shapes, so I got them out to see if I could use them as counters.

There was enough to create counters from 1 to 5, and A was interested in counting them with me. I got the Montessori numbers and counters puzzle down off the shelf so that we could also put numbers to our counters. Basically I showed A a number and said, ‘This is the number 2, can you find the collection that has 2 in it?’

I then put the Christmas counters to the side and pulled the counters part of the puzzle out of the box.

I repeated the activity, pointing out the number and asking him to find the puzzle that had that many dots.

A then grabbed some cars and started using the completed puzzles as car parks or truck pads. 😅

You just got to ‘roll’ with it.

I really wish I owned the sandpaper numbers. I want to DIY some basic number tiles instead of buying them but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

I do like this puzzle. I could have DIYed them easily, but I like the tactile warmth of the wooden puzzle that a laminated piece of paper doesn’t have.

I have removed the parts for 6 through to 10 to make it easier for A. When he can count the dots half of the puzzle, and it actually matches up to the number half it’s pretty satisfying. A was proud of his efforts during this activity.

I bought a proper shelf for our geography puzzles. We have the continents and the Australia/Oceania puzzles and I would like the oceans one as well. The two we already have and use didn’t really have a home, sometimes they were on the coffee table, or the ironing board, or just in the way.

I’ve put the smaller Montessori puzzle shelf underneath the geography puzzles. We have been filling this up and I have two hidden away. Unfortunately another shelf won’t fit beside this one 😩 but for now this is making my storage obsessed self very happy.

3 years old
I was a puzzling morning!

We cracked open our puzzle of the world parts. I sang the song as I demonstrated the continents. You can find the Continents song easily on YouTube 😊. Pretty soon A asked me to stop singing 😂

So away he went and did the puzzle.

And then he did another, and another. I didn’t photograph him doing the frog puzzle though.

2 Year’s 4 months

A’s babysitter bought him a set of second hand dominoes from our local Christmas fete.

He also bought A a few toys from the lucky dip as well. A is pretty spoilt 😆

I was trying to teach A how to get out the dominoes other then just overturning the box and dumping them out. Impossible task right now because he’s all about the dumping out at the moment.

We tried lining up the dominoes by matching the animals, but this was as far as A got before he lost interest in that game. So I let him free play.

He built ‘towers’ and a ‘snake’.

But at least we talked about animals, which is one of his favourite topics at the moment.

2 years 3 months

I know everyone knows about puzzles. I love wooden ones, but the ones I love tend to be expensive. I look for puzzles that have realistic images and or gives us plenty to talk about while we do it.

I’m posting this though to talk to you about where to buy them. Most of my puzzles are actually second hand. Second hand shops and Op shops are a good source. I also get them from on Facebook Buy, Swap and Sell groups. Join a local community group or a focused toy group in your state or country.

The above puzzle was from a Facebook group, I bought a few things to combine postage. The edges are a little worn but still in good condition.