How do you organize kids puzzles

[psylion]

Originally Posted by Fishie Kisses ours are kept on the shelves in the playroom whole top row is puzzles and learning games I'm like you...when it gets put away I have to put it together to make sure all the pieces are there. I am not going to keep and store something that isn't complete

Wow, that's beautiful. You're kids are very lucky.

[kts1120]

Good suggestions! A rack probably won't work for ours. I've seen them at target and most of our are either too tall or too wide.

[frimousse]

I have a wooden rack that we got free from a school that was getting rid of a kindergarten room. It is a wood frame with thin wood slats that fit into grooves cut out of the sides. We put the wider puzzles in sideways near the bottom and the ones that fit in the regular way on top. We also number the puzzles and all the pices to keep them tidy( something I had already started when I taught K )

[wordbox]

I just recently organized my son's puzzles. He'll be 2 next month, and likes to make a mess with his toys. So his puzzles would get all mixed together, and he'd never actually put them together because the pieces were all commingled.

What I did was put the pieces for each puzzle in different Gladware containers (I used the Target brand, they were only a few bucks for a bunch of them). I put letter stickers on each of the lids, and then put those same letters on the backs of each of the puzzle boards. My son knows most of his letters, and while he's still getting the concept down of matching the "C" board to the "C" pieces, I just help him for now and show him that they match. If he drags out one of the piece containers, I get him the matching board. We play with the puzzle, and I show him that the pieces go back in the containers. It's still a process that he's getting down, but I figure it will pay off later.

I put everything in a big basket/bin in our toy area. We have one random puzzle that is just wooden pieces without a board, so that is in its own pouch (I used the one from my Moby Wrap).

Since doing this, my son has played with his puzzles so much more, and actually puts them together rather than just throwing the pieces around the room. They were always getting lost and he wasn't actually using them very often. They are getting a lot more play now.

[Vivhop98]

Originally Posted by EmilytheStrange I bought this: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS.../chrisficti-20 for the puzzles that have knobs, I just take out the pieces with the knob and lay them on top of the puzzle, or I actually can put those pieces back on once they are in the holder. I have two puzzles that don't fit. One is really thick foam, so it sits on top. And the other is a Melissa and Doug hinge one, but that one is currently offlimits because DD is teething and wants to eat the pieces and it's a REALLY nice puzzle, so it can only be played with when we're playing together and I can watch her.

We have a similar puzzle organizer and it saves the stress of lost puzzle pieces all over the floor.