Preschoolers and Puzzles-?

Question

What number of peices and size peice of a puzzle are 4.5 year olds doing? I want to buy my son a puzzle and am not sure what is a good one that average children his age do with some ease yet some challenge? Is it the 24 peice ones that have large peices or would a 100 piece puzzle be too hard?

Answer 1

I work at a day care and the kids I teach are 3 to 5 years of age and I find the older kids, such as your son, like doing the 100 piece puzzles.  It's more challenging and fun for them I found!  Another idea is to buy him action figure puzzle or a puzzle based on one of his favorite t.v shows. The boys in my class really enjoy spider man puzzles! :)

Answer 2

if ur son is smart 100 is perfect. 24 is very easy but could make them feel better cuz the can actually finish it. schools are constantly raising the bars so 100 pieces would be very good. if that doesn't work, they do have 50 piece puzzles.

Answer 3

we do the 24 piece puzzles here and they work well. Anything larger and our son gets frustrated. We also hand hima  few at a time to do the puzzle. He will be 4 this month.

Answer 4

it depends on whether or not your child has ever had a puzzle before or not....

i have three children of my own and all 3 had a different idea of what size puzzle they could do....my son did not like puzzles so the smaller the better for him....my oldest daughter could already do regulare 100-250 piece ones at your sons age and my youngest daughter was somewhere in between.

i also worked as a teacher for over 20 yrs and i have seen children as young as 18 mo do puzzles from one piece to as many as 5 pieces, and 2-3 yr olds do from one or two piece ones all the way to my child who could already do 100 piece ones, and by the time children reach your childs age they may only be doing 4 or 5 piece ones and enjoying floor puzzles with a variety of size or number of pieces( and working with a number of other children to complete).......go with your gut if your child has had at least some experience with puzzles go ahead and try him with a 24 piece one with may be some help to get started

Answer 5

I say let your son go on jigzone.com and teach him to do puzzles on there :) My 3 year old and my 5 year old enjoy doing those puzzles... And they can't lose the pieces!!!

But if you're intent on actual puzzles, I suggest starting out with 20-24 piece puzzle. Depends on your son's *patience* mainly. My 3 year old can't stand doing large puzzles. Whereas my 5 year old thinks if the whole world is quiet long enoughs he can complete and I quote *a thousands of* piece puzzle... when in actuality she can only master a 48 piece puzzle (takes her about an hour).

Answer 6

I Would go with the 24 piece for two reasons

        1) He would accidentally lose half of the pieces

         2) He might not like puzzles and so then you would have bought a 100 piece puzzle ( now about 75! lol)

Any way if I were you I would get  a 24 piece puzzle.