Big Plus-Plus Picture Puzzles

Part puzzle, part building material, this set comes with 60 puzzle pieces and seven puzzle cards that can be used by matching pieces on top of the card with outlines on one side and no guidelines on the other. There’s a lot of fine motor skill needed here as well as visual perception. Although this is marked for 3-7, it’s more like a task that 6s and 7s may enjoy. For younger children, using the puzzle pieces for open ended creations may be the best use of this structured material. Consider, for more open-ended play, Plus-Plus Big-Open Play Set ($27) with 90 pieces designed for free-form building. These are marked for 1-6; but there’s nothing a one-year old can do with these except put them in and out of the box or chomp on them with their sore teething gums.