repurpose old board books to make puzzles

How to make Puzzles for Kids using old Board books

I am a huge fan of books. So it is needless to say that I always buy age appropriate books for my daughter.

At age 3, she has outgrown many of her old board books. Especially the ones to teach first words, animals, fruits and more. At this age, she likes more activity based play rather than toys. So I decided to recycle some old boards to make simple and easy jigsaw puzzles.

How to make Puzzles for kids:

Video Tutorial:

Step 1:

Separate and tear out the board book pages carefully. Use an xacto knife or scissors, so the pages don’t get damaged accidentally.

Step 2:

Make a grid using pen and a meter scale. You can draw any shape you want. I made some plain horizontal ones, vertical ones, triangular ones, and square ones. You can even cut them into irregular shapes (like tangrams). Design your puzzles as easy or as difficult as you want. You can also make them in any size. Make that decision according to your kid’s age.

how to make puzzles from board books

Step 3:

Now simply cut out the cardboard puzzles using an xacto knife (Tip: Do this on a hard and scratch resistant surface like a kitchen counter top). 

Hurrah, you got some 2 sided puzzles!!

A few Tips to make these puzzles better:

  1. Try using bright colored board books to make these easy puzzles as they appeal more to young kids and are easy to distinguish.
  2. Use books with little to no writing (First words, animals, fruit books etc work best)
  3. For older kids, make smaller puzzle pieces and odd shapes to increase the level of difficulty.

If you liked this puzzle idea, then check out 30 ways to make DIY puzzles at home, for even more inspirations and ideas!!

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Counting Puzzles Alphabets Colors

    Hi, I’m Alifya. I love doing fun activities with my daughter, Hussaina and write all about it here! My crazy hobbies include:

    A. Binge watching Friends upto a point of memorizing it!
    B. Watching Air Crash Investigations and Mega Structures on
    NatGeo and 
    C. Reading Harry Potter for the thousandth time!!

    how to make puzzles from old books pin

    4 thoughts on “How to make Puzzles for Kids using old Board books”

    1. Pingback: 21 Creative Things to do with Old Books » Craftilifia

    2. Pingback: 30 Creative, Easy and fun ways to make DIY puzzles for kids

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