Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 27
 Nice puzzles December 30, 2006
City Witch (New Jersey, USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is basically a set of boards with patterns on them that your child is supposed to replicate with all these tiny puzzle pieces.
The good: It's fun. It's a great way to work on basic math, shapes, and matching. Its also good for small motor development and coordination. Its challenging.
The bad: The pieces are small and nothing holds them in place. They move when another piece is put down and they fall off if your child tries to pick up the board to show you his latest accomplishment. Also, the colors of the pieces are not distinct enough. The purple ones look an awful lot like the blue ones. Finally, the box is awkward to get the puzzle boards out of. I use the top puzzle as a lever to get the others out, but my almost 4 year old can't manage that. How hard would it have been to cut out a finger's width of the inner box?
I DO like this puzzle set, but its not as user-friendly as the other Melissa and Doug products I have seen. In spite of the labels, I do NOT recommend getting this for a 3 year old unless the child has excellent manual dexterity.
 Give it a try! October 20, 2005
K Mes (Florida)
3 out of 11 found this review helpful
I brought this puzzle for my daughter who is 3 years old. She seems to enjoy it a lot, the one thing that I love about this game is that it keeps her busy for a long time.
 Great toy for my imaginative [...]!!!! February 7, 2007
L. Sutton (poplar bluff, mo)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I got this toy because my daughter was outgrowing the 8 to 12 piece wooden board puzzles and needed more of a challenge. She loves all the little pieces and can match them perfectly on the boards! She also just takes the pieces and builds other things with them, a 2 in 1 toy!!!!
Note to parents of younger children: If your child likes to mouth things, this is definetly not for you!! The pieces have a varnish smell to them, which I can't imagine would be good to taste or digest!
hours of fun ...lots of little pieces September 29, 2006
Tiffany Lucy (Redondo beach, ca United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
My sister-in-law bought this for my sons 3rd birthday, he loves it and plays with it for hours. Within a week he knew all his shapes, and then we started working on left and right. I would say "turn that piece to the right and it will fit better." Within a few weeks he knew his right from left.
The only down side is LOTS of little pieces. I also have a 5 month old who loves to put things in her mouth. I had to make the rule "only at the kitchen table and it must be put away when you're done" I explained how dangerous it is for his baby sister... now he puts all his puzzles away. Because he wants to be a good big brother. Huge bonus!
Kinah's Mom November 6, 2006
Melissa F. Fields (Upper Marlboro, MD)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
We LOVE this puzzle. It keeps my 3 year old busy for a long time. There are so many different ways to use this puzzle. I agree with the other reviewers that the pieces slide around easily on the puzzle boards and that can become frustrating. But there are a myriad of other creative ways to use the puzzle for the cognitive benefit of your child. We use this puzzle for sorting shapes. I put one of each shape into it's own bowl and she sorts all the other pieces into the correct bowl, following my lead. Then after the sorting process is completed, we use the sorted shapes to make patterns, i.e, octagon, square, octagon, square, octagon, square, etc., She enjoys pouring the shapes from bowl to bowl - it's amazing how long this keeps her occupied. We have also used the shapes to make objects, i.e., flowers, sun, rocket ship, snowman, etc., We've used the puzzle to show same/equal, for example two green triangles put together are the same size (or make the same shape) as one yellow diamond.
Or six triangles put together at the points make one octagon. I overlay the octagon on top of the triangles that form an octagon to show that they are equal. It can be used to teach/re-enforce colors, shapes, left, right, top, bottom, positions, etc., I highly highly recommend this puzzle. The reason I gave 4 stars as opposed to 5 is because the puzzle boards let the shaped-puzzle pieces slip around easily. Even with that one drawback, the puzzle actually does deserve 5 stars.
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