Winnie the Pooh 8 Piece Woodboard Puzzle

As my daughter reaches her preschool years, we've been working a lot lately with her on hand coordination and problem solving. She has gotten quite well with letters, colors, numbers, sounds, and even a bit of reading. We've tried puzzles on numerous occasions in the past and my daughter was never interested. She would play with them a few minutes then bore easily and move on. She received a swarm of puzzles last Christmas, but I hesitated to open all of them because the pieces were usually tossed aside carelessly and never played with again. Now that she is a bit older , I opened up a few of her puzzles in hopes that maybe this would help her with her eye and hand coordination since she will be starting school soon. The first puzzle we opened was Mattel's Winnie the Pooh 8-piece Woodboard Puzzle: With Bluebird . Although this puzzle was given as a gift, it can be purchased for 5.99 to 7.99 (depending on the store).

Winnie the Pooh 8-piece Woodboard Puzzle: With Bluebird

Winnie the Pooh 8-piece Woodboard Puzzle: With Bluebird is a puzzle for young children from ages 2 to 5 years. The puzzle of course is woodboard and comes with removable pieces. On the front, Winnie the Pooh is leaning back on his hands while sitting, and wearing his usual red shirt that never quite covers his belly. He is playfully looking up at a bright aqua colored bluebird, who in turn is smiling down on him as it flitters above his head. Except for Pooh and the bluebird, the entire front of the puzzle is purple. There are light lavender acorns and leaves that decorate the purple background. In the bottom right hand corner, Mattel doesn't forget to let you know that they are the makers of this puzzle.

When the 8 pieces are taken off the puzzle, they do not really seem to resemble any sort of traditional shape. However the pieces are thick and sturdy, and extremely easy for young hands to grasp and hold on to. The pieces vary from Pooh's body parts, the bluebird, and the purple background. The object is to have a child or children put the pieces back together to make a picture. The frame of the puzzle is extremely sturdy. Being woodboard, it's almost impossible for children to break or tear. I think this is a wonderful idea since the classic cardboard type puzzles aren't really fit for a young child's use (in my opinion).

Experiences

When my daughter first started playing with puzzle, she looked at Pooh for a few minutes then commented on how pretty the little bird was. The colors and pictures were enough to keep her interested for a few minutes, so that was a good start. She then turned the puzzle over and dumped all pieces out of the woodboard. She had a simple time grasping each piece and holding it in her hand. Once she started putting the pieces together, she got a bit frustrated that they wouldn't go exactly into place. She studied the pieces for a while, and after 4 tries she put the entire puzzle together. It was that simple. After putting the puzzle together again a few more times, she quickly became bored again and left the puzzle. I was happy that she could actually put the puzzle together now and at least showed a bit of interest in it, but it was a bit too simple for her. In my opinion, this puzzle is better suited for a 2 to 3 year old if they have enough interest to play with it. There were other children that played with this puzzle that showed more interest than my daughter did, and I noticed again that none of the children had any problems grasping the pieces ( their ages were 2 and 3 ). My daughter's 2 year old friend seemed to enjoy the puzzle the most. After showing him (the 2 year old) how to feel the corners of the pieces and match them into the puzzle, he placed a few of the pieces in the correct spot.

The puzzle still gets played with every now and then, but in my experience, the puzzle was just a bit too simple for my 4 year old. That being said, I would still recommend this puzzle. The pieces are perfectly sized for young hands and the entire puzzle is unbreakable. The kid friendly colors and characters tend to capture the attention of most preschoolers and even babies. Being that there are only 8 pieces to the puzzle, they are not easily lost and there is no messiness at all involved. It did help my daughter's hand and eye coordination, and she was pleased with herself that she completed the puzzle by herself. So even though she may have been a bit too old, I still recommend giving this puzzle a shot (especially if your little one or little ones are Pooh fans).