I love wooden puzzles and books for toddlers and preschoolers. I've collected quite a few, but if I left them all out where my kids could reach them, they exploded into a huge mess all over the room. If I put them up out of reach, they seemed to rarely get used.
With Elsie I have come up with this solution:
In her room she has a puzzle/book play center. I keep the wooden puzzles in a plastic tub. On the lid of the tub I have a smaller tub of board books. Next to it is a child sized chair and on the floor I often put a nice crib size quilt to sit on.
Every day or two, we get out a new puzzle from the tub. Sometimes she plays with it on the floor, but usually she plays with it standing at the chair like a little table. She has free access to the books in the tub, and the tub makes them easy for her to put them in and out. The weight of the book tub and the difficulty of lifting the lid of the puzzle tub, keeps the puzzles out of her reach, but easy for me to get them out and, more importantly, to remember to get them out! It is a favorite place for us to spend time together, too!
Works for Me! At least until she gets strong enough to open that tub...
(Be sure to check out Shannon's blog for more great Works for Me ideas!)
Great tip and very cute pictures of Elsie! :)
ReplyDeleteI’ve posted a 12 lbs ‘til Christmas WFMW tip.
Wonderful idea. And, she is sooooo adorable! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! When our puzzles get out, you're right, they make a huge jumbled mess. You are so organized! I didn't get that quality, but I'm working on it!
ReplyDeleteI love that dress Elsie is wearing. You're such a great seamstress! :)
Love it! I too love wooden puzzles and books!
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea. I love reading your works for me Wednesday. I wish I was more organized. Maybe someday.
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas!! I keep our puzzles in a storage tub, but they often don't come out of the closet. I need to put them where I will remember them. Elsie is adorable!
ReplyDeleteI love having things in order and organized (not so easy when you are a mother of young kids, but I still try : ) !!) and this is a great tip. I think the best part about it is is reminds you to get the puzzles out!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Thanks for visiting my site. I will have to come back and look through yours more when I have a little more time!
I love books too! Great idea to have the chair right there! Elsie is darling.
ReplyDeleteWhat an adorable little reader you have there! I need to get the puzzles out more often with my almost two year old. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteditto to the up and out of reach approach - they don't seem to get used as much. i bet drew would love this solution! tfs!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, but I don't think it will work for my kids. "R" just throws all of his puzzles in his toy box and then when he wants to play with them he throws all of his toys out. This also helps him to find toys at the bottom he may have forgotten but makes a huge mess for us to share time cleaning up.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! I love wooden puzzles too but we never use them because the pieces get everywhere! I may have to try this...
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