Introducing First Montessori Puzzles

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We have been loving puzzles around here lately. Now that I have introduced all of our single-piece puzzles and we are moving on to multiple pieces I thought I would do a post on how we introduced them.

The first puzzle we introduced was a single-piece round puzzle. This is the simplest puzzle. In Montessori, we start with materials in their most basic forms and isolate those concepts before moving on to more complicated materials. A single-piece puzzle isolates the concepts of taking the piece out and placing it in the right spot. Multiple-piece puzzles require sorting. So while it may seem like the same difficulty to put a circle puzzle piece into a circle puzzle opening whether it is alone or on a board with two other puzzles it is actually far more complicated if other puzzles are also present.

Presenting Montessori Single-Piece Puzzles

As I mentioned the first puzzle we introduced was a single-piece round puzzle. Round puzzles are easier than square and triangle puzzles because they fit in any way. Once he mastered the round puzzle we went on to the square puzzle, then to the triangle puzzle.

The triangle puzzle is more complicated than the square puzzle because there are three ways for it to go in rather than four. Thus it was the third puzzle we introduced.

I introduced the round puzzle first with the piece in place. There is a shift in the introduction of materials between infancy and toddlerhood from presenting materials completed to presenting them undone. For an infant just starting out on a puzzle (or ring stacker, etc) they are going to be able to take it apart far before they can put it together. By taking it apart he learned how it worked.

I would also model how to put it back on. The general rule for modeling in Montessori is SHOW: slow hands, omit words. We model slowly and silently. Our first puzzle was the Lovevery single-piece puzzle which has a baby under the puzzle piece. Because of this, we used this puzzle for language work and for practicing waving. I would not have played as actively with him with a plain puzzle so he did get a lot more modeling on this one since he would take it off and I would put it back on after we waved “hi baby.” Another great option for that sort of play is a mirror single-piece puzzle. (For a DIY version add this to your favorite puzzle or put a picture of family members inside). I found he had a lot more interest in puzzles with the baby or the mirror than in the standard plain Montessori single-piece puzzles. However, I have only found Montessori single-piece round puzzles with mirrors or babies inside so if you want that for the other shapes, it requires DIY.

While in infancy I presented the material together, for toddlers, we want to present materials undone. This allows them to explore themselves and creates greater interest in the material. Now that Yitzchak is a toddler I have moved to presenting the Montessori single-piece puzzles undone on a tray.

Once you have presented all the Montessori single-piece puzzles and they have mastered them you can move to presenting two single-piece puzzles together. We are starting that out now with the circle and square puzzles together on the tray and the corresponding puzzle piece under the corresponding hole. You can also use a single-board puzzle at this point, but our single-board multipiece puzzle is more complicated so we are doing this first.

3D Montessori Puzzles

One other type of puzzle you might see in a Montessori environment is a 3D puzzle. There are several types of these. We had an egg in a cup puzzle and a pincer grasp cylinder puzzle. We got both of ours in our Lovevery subscription. The egg in a cup puzzle came at 9 months and the pincer puzzle at 11. The egg in a cup was the first puzzle Yitzchak was able to do. There is also a cube 3D puzzle but we did not have that one.

When should you introduce Montessori single-piece puzzles?

There is no right answer about when you should introduce the Montessori single-piece puzzles since all children are different and Montessori is about following your child. However, I can offer some general guidance.

We got our puzzle from Lovevery when he was 7 months old. I think that is far too early. We were able to use it around 8/9 months for object permanence development as we said “hi” and “bye” to the baby under the puzzle piece. He wasn’t doing it independently for quite some time though.

The danger in introducing materials too early is they become disinterested. If this has happened I rotate the material out for a week or two when he seems to be approaching actually being ready and bring it back when I think he is ready. I then model when I reintroduce. This usually refuels the interest.

Yitzchak mastered the puzzle around 11 months but I think he would have mastered it earlier had I rotated it out earlier or introduced a different puzzle that we hadn’t been playing with together for months. If you are using one puzzle for practicing waving and object permanence interest can be reignited in actually doing the puzzle by introducing a different round single-piece puzzle. I personally love having both the puzzle with the baby and the mirror puzzle.

I think around 10 months is a reasonable time to actually introduce these puzzles to many babies. A sign of readiness to look for is purposefully placing objects down. While prior Yitzchak would mostly pick things up and remove objects, at this age he started to place things with more purpose such as a ball in the object permanence box or a cup at the table. He also began placing things in our hands more.

In the future, I might introduce the puzzle for object permanence and play together at around 8/9 months and then put it away for a bit before bringing it out around 10 months when I start seeing interest in that sort of work. Our first puzzle also had a silicone top which led to using it a lot for teething. This was great in that he loved it but did lead to less engagement with the actual puzzle.

All babies develop at their own pace though and there is no one right or wrong time to introduce them. Interest waxes and wanes.