Realistic Knob Puzzles Aligned to Montessori – Puzzles Part 1

Hi! This post goes beyond the basic shapes knob puzzle to outline available sources and brands that sell peg and knob puzzles with realistic photo or imagery. It is by no means extensive but just what I came across and liked while online shopping for puzzles.

I introduced Little P to his first single shaped Montessori puzzle when he was a few days from 10 months old. The first thing he did with the knob puzzle was…. to use it as a pacifier.

Not cool, baby. Not cool.

Basic shapes single knob puzzle

… a simple puzzle with a triangle, a circle, and a square in three different solid colors gives your toddler organized information about shapes.

These are three essential geometric structures to distinguish between. They learn about the relationship between the three as they take the pieces out and put them away.

And they absorb that these shapes are related to each other without the distraction of decorative faces or random shapes. When too much information is offered in one toy, children cannot abstract the essential elements of the activity.

Montikids – What makes a toy a montessori toy?

I had bought the puzzles off Taobao, the cheapskate that I am. So I’m not so sure sucking on the knobs was such a good idea. The marketing material did say it is made using safe water-based paints.

But if you want to be super-safe, you can always consider getting something handcrafted on Etsy that you have personally vetted and know for sure will be safe for your LO to mouth.

Unless you are cheap like me of course.  🤷‍♀️

Anyway, it took a few months but Little P slowly progressed from the Circle (easiest), to the Square and finally to the Triangle (hardest) puzzle. He completed the shape puzzles at a go at 15 months old. By this age, he had also grown out of using knob puzzles as pacifiers for quite some time.

That did take some time, didn’t it! No pressure.

Good for Hand-eye coordination, Fine motor skills and Language

AS I researched, I read that peg or knob puzzles not only help Little P explore basic shapes. They also help Little P practice using his fingers, aka his fine motor skills and hand eye-coordination. Along the way, I also found the puzzle pieces to work pretty well as language objects, compared to magnets, figurines or cards.

They are just so handy for naming while Little P tried to fit each piece into the puzzle board. That was when I started on a hunt for more affordable peg puzzles to put on his play shelf.

Because I was trying to be more or less faithful to Montessori practices, I had another additional condition when hunting for peg puzzles. The pictures had to be realistic, if not actual photographic images.

The following were the brands I found to fulfill the two criteria:
1) Is a peg or knob puzzle
2) Image on the puzzle is a photo or at least a realistic (to some extent) picture

Knob Puzzle Brands with Realistic Images

Before the age of six, your child’s brain is relatively incapable of distinguishing fantasy from reality. In order for them to develop real imagination and a secure relationship to their world, they need to first learn about what the world really is like. Read them books about real things: Tigers in the rainforest, not tigers driving buses.

MONTIKIDS – WHAT MAKES A TOY A MONTESSORI TOY?

Edushape Realistic Knob Puzzles

My next puzzle for Little P was a puzzle of farm animals. I chose Farm Animals because they seem to be quite a common starting point for young children learning their words.

But it turned out too be pretty challenging for Little P at 15 months. He showed great interest because it was a new toy, but that interest soon turn into frustration and disinterest because it was too difficult for him to solve.

He ended up picking at the sticker behind each puzzle piece rather than trying to solve the puzzle at all. so I decided to keep it and try it again later.

The farm puzzle I bought was a 7-piece puzzle, which may be why it was too difficult for him. First, it was a leap from 4 pieces to 7 pieces. Second, it was also a jump from basic geometric shapes to irregular shapes.

I decided some scaffolding is desirable so maybe I should start him on a 3 or 4-piece peg picture puzzle instead.

Edushape does have 4-piece knob puzzles, like this yummy vegetables puzzle.

But I couldn’t justify myself getting them because the 4-piece ones were a lot more expensive than the puzzles with more pieces. Basically I am just a skinflint who refused to pay more. 😝

So I decided to look for used puzzles that parents might be selling on Carousell instead.

Lakeshore Knob Puzzles

And that is how I came across Lakeshore. Although the animals aren’t as realistic as Edushape, I like that these farm animals are placed in the context of their surroundings. It gave opportunities to use richer language like, instead of “Cow”, I could say “You placed the cow on the field”. Or instead of “Chicken “, I could say “You moved the chicken into the coop.”

Unfortunately, I found this puzzle extremely hard to find online and isn’t listed on Lakeshore’s official website. So I think it may very well have been discontinued.

Note: Later on I saw someone listing this same puzzle so I do think they come up now and again on Carousell. But Little P already had a farm animal puzzle and was more interested in vehicles so it wasn’t so relevant to us anymore.

Puzzibilities Peg Puzzles by Small World Toys Ryan’s Room

I couldn’t find any other realistic 4-piece puzzles but this 5-piece puzzle with its red rescue vehicles caught my eye.

I would have bought the whole bundle of puzzles from her because they were all fairly realistic, except for one. But the seller couldn’t find them in her storage. 😅

She kindly let me know that the brand was Puzzibilities, so I went hunting again. I eventually learned that Puzzibilities is a sub-brand of puzzles under the brand Ryan’s Room by Small World Toys.

I found some Small World Toys Ryan’s Room puzzles on Amazon but not the 5-piece red rescue vehicles one. Sigh. Still I love the old-school feel of the line drawings. I bought the 10-piece transporation puzzle. Yes, instead of going for less pieces I bought a puzzle with even more pieces instead. 🤦‍♀️

My excuse? Every kid deserves a puzzle with a space shuttle in it. ✌️ 

Lights, Camera, Interaction! Realistic Peg Puzzles

Another puzzle brand with the same kind of more realistic, less cartoony pictures was Lights, Camera, Interaction! Just take a look at these gorgeous vehicle puzzles!

But so, so hard to find because Lights, Camera, Interaction! no longer exists! It has become the Melissa and Doug that we know today. Melissa and Doug puzzles largely look like this.

Very cartoony. So not really aligned to what I am looking for if its a puzzle focusing on individual objects.

Melissa & Doug Realistic Peg Puzzles

Now Melissa & Doug does sell a small selection of sound puzzles which have more realistic illustrations.

But these are generally 8-piece peg puzzles. I am still hunting for a knob puzzle with less pieces, not more. HAHAHA!

M.S. Montessori Store Realistic Knob Puzzles on Taobao

At first, I wasn’t considering Taobao because China was locked down. But as the restrictions eased, I started looking there again and look what I found! Wooden peg puzzles with realistic images like Edushape but with less pieces and *ahem* significantly cheaper.

So yup, problem solved. Hah!

Up Next in Puzzles Part 2: Little P’s experiences playing with his knob puzzles

This post deals with the process of sourcing for knob puzzles with realistic images for Little P. I admit I did get a little obsessed with them, but that’s because after a while Little P got rather obsessed with them too. Haha.

But that’s the story for next time in Part 2 on his experiences and my thoughts about his progression through the various puzzles and puzzle formats. So stay tuned if you are interested in that!

Montessori materials are all designed with what we call a “control of error”. This means that the materials are designed in a manner to help the child know if he has done something correctly. The simplest example of this is a puzzle. The child knows he’s completed it correctly if all of the pieces fit.

Control of error is important because it keeps children from looking to adults to tell them they’ve done something correctly.  It encourages children to be active explorers of their own world and to judge their work for themselves.

the tot – What this montessori teacher looks for in a toy

Note: Copyright information for images used in this post are either watermarked within the image itself or linked to the Amazon, Carousell, Etsy or Taobao sales sites where they were originally sourced. Weliveinaflat does not claim copyright for any of the images that were sourced from these named third parties.

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