What do you give your toddler to play with after a Building Bin? A Puzzle Pail of course! Today’s “invitation” for Veronika was a pail (from our beach toy collection) appropriately filled with puzzles. I liked the alteration here, but of course any container would work, not necessarily a sand pail.

I set out the puzzles in a few different ways. Bulky ones (including one with latches and another with farm animals behind flaps), I simply set out on the ground.

But for more standard puzzles, I separated them into pieces and each puzzle got its own zip-top baggie. I then put these baggies into the pail. Veronika immediately grabbed at all the bags, emptying her pail out.

She wanted to tackle the shape puzzle first. There must have been a leap in her brain, because she solved the entire puzzle without any help!

All I had to ask was a prompt (“Where does the rectangle go?” and she immediately knew.

When it was complete, it was fun for her to load the pieces back into their zip-top baggie.

In fact, your child might find the bags and pieces the most interesting part of this activity, rather than solving any puzzles.

Next up was an animal puzzle. And she solved this one without any assistance, too!

I guess my girl has earned her animal stripes (and spots).

I also included an animal sound puzzle to add a fun auditory element.

I loved seeing her busy with all the different puzzle varieties throughout the day, and only occasionally needed to jump in for assistance. This one truly lived up to its intention as a solo activity.