What can I give DS to do that feeds the same frenzy as puzzles... but are different!!

[Jackaroo]

He seems ridiculously attached to doing puzzles (but I recognise this is better than my obsession with chocolate), but am wondering if there's something else I can get for him/try that would be a similar kind of activity/skill? There seems to be quite a leap between the 24 piece puzzles and the next stages of 50/60 pieces, but maybe I haven't looked enough...

so something that's using hte same skills as a medium sized puzzle!

Oh, he's 2.2 yrs...

thanks.....

PS and should I be feeding this or trying to make him do other things? We do lots of stuff, but he always comes back to puzzles about 4-5 times a day.

Means he'll be good at maths, apparently. Was going to suggest puzzle balls but would be too fiddly even for your proficient 2 year old. Get him a hard puzzle - my dd loved them even though she needed a lot of help. Once they've done them a few times, they learn them and can do them unaided. Or even wrong way round (??!!).

I've ordered 3D wooden traffic dominoes for my ds for xmas - you have to match up the road pieces AND make sure the halves of cars match up too. Any kind of game like that might catch his fancy.

What about a lego set, same sort of building an end product but he can make it as hard or easy as he wants (you want lego duplo or megablocks btw!)

Can you get a pack of 3 similar sized ones or with varied no of pieces - think dd had a Bob set of with 24, 48 and 60 pieces - so he has to sort them as well as piece together. Also The Happy Puzzle Company have a variety of puzzles and logic games for all ages.

I think I'd have a problem with trying to show him how to do a puzzle ball lol!!

Wrong way round - do you mean so there's no picture?

Thanks for the advice, I can try him on those, but it wasn't so much for keeping boredom at bay, I was just wondering if anyone knew what skill is involved, and if a different kind of activity uses it...

Maths huh? Well, maybe he'll be an accountant like Daddy (although Daddy hopes not )

sorry, spent so long answering I missed all those...

he is underwhelmed by duplo - maybe I should try lego, or just more pieces? 3d dominos just sound plain scary - probably perfect

will check out htat link too...

It a spatial awareness skill. So anything that involves construction, piecing together , sorting (by size, shape, colour, pattern etc) is similar. Perhaps something with shape/colour matching or 3d, or threading chunky beads. Duplo may work better if he has a design to aim for like a picture on a box rather than random bricks. We had a version of this for example.

Hi there - I have a puzzle obsessed 2.5 yr-old dd. We are also doing 25 piece puzzles and running out of them fast (there really is a big leap after that and I'm not sure I could stand helping her do a 50 piece all day long!!).

The other thing she really loves is 'shopping' using real money (1s, 2s and 5s) a toy cash register, basket and a jumbled mess of toy food as a 'shop'. I think it has some of the same apeal (but it is quite random and not as organised as it sounds - sometimes we mash and cook the money...). She pays the money, rings it in the till, scans the food, puts money in the right tray in till etc. In fact, she has a really big jar of money and she can play with that a lot - counting, stacking (cooking it...).

It also gives me a break from watching her do puzzles (I am required to watch of course and totally not allowed to eg read a book).

I'd also like some puzzles that bridge the gap from here. We've got 2 kinds of dominoes (big wooden ones and spotty dog ones) and they're good to. JIll

Thomas the Tank engine wooden track - ds did jigsaws at the same age and now makes massively complicated tracks around the whole house.

He was also underwhelmed by lego/duplo - something to do with working in 3D I think, It's hard imagining the back whilst you are working on the front or the bottom when you are at the top.

Ds was totally obsessed, but then became obsessed with something else (and then another thing). Let him do jigsaws as much as he wants - he will be onto something else soon enough.

Found those 3D dominoes:
www.littlefishtoys.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=614

Interesting about the traintrack - I wondered about that. Dd is also totally underwhelmed by duplo.

jackaroo, both my DCs went through a puzzle stage at this age. We swapped puzzles with friends so it didn't get too dull for the adults.
Orchard Toys do some lovely puzzles. A slight variation on puzzles is a wooden dress the bear game.
They moved onto duplo and wooden train set in a big way somewhere between 2.6 and 3.

My dd is exactly the same with puzzles. She loves them. I just read your post out to dp cos it was just like I had written it.
I have been going round the car boots on a Sunday and buying a couple of new puzzles for her each time. They only cost about 20p.
I will be following this thread with interest.

We have the dress the bear game - dd likes that.

DS 2.2 is also very into puzzles and is doing 24 piece ones.

He also loves building train tracks, but not so much the trains. He will spend 1/2 hour putting a track together, just to pull it apart and start again. anything to keep them occupied

Ah, the destruction afterwards, yes that's a whole extra level of intrigue.. why would he do a puzzle/draw a picture/set up his money (?!) and then bring it all crashing down....

good to know he's normal, well normal for the roo-house anyway . I just think of it as the child's version of DH obsession with MS Money........Acinonyx, I go crazy just having to sit and watch - friend of mine can go back to bed for a couple of hours knowing her son will be perfectly fine.. I've obviously "made a rod for my own back" as threatened by MIL many months ago

Same here DS loves making puzzles, always has done from an early age on. He's now 4 and still loving it. Orchard toys and Galt makes some good puzzles, he loves the 100piece dinosaur one and has been making that every day for weeks last Christmas.

Same underwhelmed by Duplo but intrigued by lego but really he not old enough.

What does throw him is when the puzzles are not square. he also loves fames (again Orchard toys are fab and we bought most of ours on car boor sales)

try him with a harder puzzle, about 6 months ago my ds was doing 25 piece puzzles easily, i took the plunge and bought him 75 piece puzzle (he was just turned 3 at the time) and he did it relatively easily, had to help him the first time but after that he was away. he now happily does 75-100 piece puzzles without any help

fames = games

beautifuldays - personally I've been hanging on a bit before moving up to 50+ piece puzzles as I expect that once dd has seen one she will refuse to do anything smaller even if she totally can't do it.

Jackeroo - Ah the rod, the rod we have made! If I start trying to lounge and lean at 45 degrees or less I get soundly rebuked and told to 'wake up'. No amount of assuring her that I really am awake and paying attention (just resting...) will do.

But after the 3rd go around with the same blasted puzzle it really is watching paint dry. The Orchard puzzles are her favourite.

Ds is only now playing with his trainsets as a role play type game - we've had over 2 years of him making one, making it larger, adapting it to take one more bridge and then pulling it apart again without a single train ever going over it.

Pickie, could be worth trying some lego. My 2 year old is another puzzle lover and plays with both Duplo and Lego. We've collected a substantial amount of both over the years. He has the Thomas the Tank Engine Duplo as he adored Thomas. Then he often joins in with his 6 year old brother at Lego, I started him with a few sets on his 4th birthday. Along with meccano which again the 2 and 6 year old both love. That starts from 4.

thanks Blueblob, he actually played all morming with lego at a Toddler group (making guns out of lego but neverteless it was lego ) Dh bought 2 lego sets in eager anticipation 2 years ago plus he has a huge storage box full of it from when he was little so that is Christmas sorted for him.