My DS just turned 2 a couple of months ago, and our puzzles are now way too easy for him. We have the knob kind for ages 2+. He still enjoys them, but he can complete them in mere seconds. He's got really great fine motor skills and is good at pattern recognition. What puzzles would you recommend next? There are so many out there that I don't know where to begin. What has worked best for you?

You'd think that since this is my third child, I would know about these things. My girls never really liked puzzles, though.

I just bought a big 25 piece Melissa and Doug's floor puzzle for my DS2.5. It is a 4 foot long fire truck and he LOVES it!!! He also likes the little 24 piece puzzles that come in the boxes and is able to do them all by himself now. The floor puzzle is by far his favorite though, I am on the lookout for more of those.

Melissa and Doug make nice puzzles. I would probably start with their 12-piece wooden puzzles. They come 4 in a box. Then move to 24 piece puzzles.

My DS6 also had great fine motor skills and pattern recognition. My dad made wooden alphabet and number puzzles for him, and that's how he learned his letters and numbers well before he was 18 mos. He LOVED those puzzles, wanted to do nothing else all day but those letter and number puzzles, obsessed over them for months!

If you can find some wooden letter puzzles, it might be just the thing for your child, too. You can start spelling words for him with them as he's ready for that, too, and pointing out that the words you spell with the letters are the same as the ones in his books.

As a side note, our pattern lover was ready to read early, since language is just another pattern to recognize. Be aware that yours might be, too.

They're all different, of course, but your son sounds so much like mine, I hope maybe this helps you!

I also recommend the Melissa and Doug puzzles. They make many different sizes of wooden puzzles. Cardboard warps and gets icky too easily. The wooden pieces are tactily pleasing and last for handing down to younger sibs or friends. My youngest was a puzzle nut from about 1.5 to 2 years old. She stopped after she got to doing 48 pieces independently, and switched to working more seriously on reading.

You can also look for the wooden stacking shape/color sorters or the type that require the child to reproduce a pattern with stacking rings or beads. If your little one reads or knows letters and sounds, the alphabet matching puzzles that have a top and a bottom half with a picture on the top and a letter on the bottom are fun.

Ready to read early? My girls loved reading from early on, but DS has only just recently gotten interested in books. You could be right, though. We're finding out that he knows way more than he lets on sometimes. Or maybe we've just been in denial.

Thanks for all of the information. I'll try the Melissa and Doug puzzles. I like the idea of the alphabet puzzles, too. So far, he hasn't been interested in learning letters (so unlike his sisters), but that may change once he can actually touch them.

Yes, I think coming at language in terms of patterns really helped my child with the astoundingly high (to me anyway) PRI score. His verbal was GT, but not outrageous, yet he was reading letters at 12-14 mos. and reading books before 3.5yo. The puzzles were what did it for him, completely. No doubt in my mind.

Once he saw the letters and numbers in the puzzles--touched them, held them, moved them--then he started recognizing them in signs and books. Around age 2-2.5yo, he got great joy out of "writing" nonsense words with his puzzle pieces and hearing me sound them out.("Xyrgmabnfzeuv? I think?" LOL!)

DS3 seems far more verbal than DS6, but he's barely reading letters yet. He just has never seemed to be nearly as into the patterns as DS6 was, and he never did anything with the puzzles.

So I think the puzzles are a great way into reading for patern-y kids. FWIW...