This year we bought a lot of fire engine toys and puzzles for my little boy for Christmas and this one from The Early Learning Centre really caught our eye. 

The puzzle is a lift out puzzle meaning that it has little yellow pegs on each puzzle piece in order to make it easy for little hands to put the puzzle pieces in and out. This is a great way in my opinion for little hands to hold the pieces and I think it gives them a bit more control and enables them to spin the pieces around and fit them in the proper way easier than if the piece had no peg at all.

The puzzle is lovely and bright and has a really nice picture on it. It is a bright red fire engine with three firemen in the picture too. There is quite a lot going on in the picture as well as just having a fire engine there and I think the nice thing about this puzzle is that you can invent lots of stories about what is going on. For example there is a cat on the ladder on top of the fire engine so you can have fun naming the cat and figuring out why he was up there and how is was going to get down. One of the fireman is holding a hose and appears to be washing the fire engine whilst the other two men sit in the cockpit driving and sounding the horn.

There are eight pieces in this puzzle. There is no real shape to them per sea, they are more sort of random shapes although one of them in a circle which is in one of the wheels of the fire engine. The thing I like about this puzzle is that underneath the puzzle piece there is more of a picture for you to discover. For example under the circle in the wheel you will find a cute little cat and under another of the pieces you can see a fireman's hat. I like that there is more to discover and it makes the puzzle that much more interesting for little ones.

Obviously my new born boy is not too excited by this puzzle yet but my two year old loves it and finds it easy to complete. It's not too much of a challenge but I think she enjoys doing it regardless. The puzzle is wooden and very well made and good quality. The puzzle pieces go in well and come out well and do not stick or anything like that. 

Like I've said above this puzzle is available at The Early Learning Centre and was priced at £8 although it is now £4 in the sale.