Melissa & Doug Magnetic Wooden Fishing Game and Puzzle with Wooden Ocean Animal Magnets

I bought this puzzle for my 18 month old son 3 months ago as a development toy to work on his eye hand coordination and memory. Out of the package this puzzle arrived as expected: the puzzle pieces were in good shape, great quality and were easy to remove and re-insert. The magnet that was attached to the wooden stick worked great with the puzzle pieces: strong enough to the lift the pieces out of the puzzle yet easy enough for my son to remove the pieces from the magnet by hand once he has lifted them from the board.What I love about this product: I really enjoyed that the pictures of the puzzle pieces were not on the board once the pieces are removed. It was great to watch my son develop over a three month span as he went from just removing the pieces (eye hand coordination) to being able to put the puzzle pieces back without needing a picture as a guide (memory). I also enjoyed that the sea creatures are different colors so we could call out colors and watch him figure out which piece to remove.What I didn't like about this product: nothing to report here.Overall I would highly recommend this quality product to anyone looking for a fun puzzle that will help their child with early development skills. In fact after having this puzzle for three months I went out and bought a different Melissa and Doug magnetic puzzle (the bug one) for him to play with.

Great

We have a few of these puzzles from Melissa and Doug and my kid loves them. The pieces fit nicely and its very fun to have a little fishing rod to get them out. The magnet holds the pieces good enough for him to get them off without just falling off.The rod isn't too heavy for him to handle but the only thing about it is that kids like to get wild from time to time and its very easy to swing around and bonk him in the head. The magnet side is pretty solid so it can hurt...so just beware of that.Other than that, there is nothing bad to say.

I wasn't sure how much my 2.5 year old would like this toy but we borrowed it from a friend and she seemed to love it so I splurged and got one. So far she comes back to it every so often and plays with it. I think it is a great toy for developing hand eye coordination in an interesting way. We also had been reading a lot of books that mentioned fishing and this was a simple way to show her what fishing was like. We used all the animal shapes and figures to teach her about ocean life and she would fish for each animal and call out its name. It was fun because we would make a big deal of the catch--yay! You caught a crab! Are you gonna eat him? No! Throw him back in (and she would put the puzzle piece back in). You can have a lot of fun with this in that way.The quality of the toy is very good. The only annoying thing is that the fishing rod has almost gotten lost a few times. So now we just keep it separate and out of reach--and give it to her along with the puzzle if she is going to use it. Problem solved. It's also nice because in order to catch the piece you not only have to hang the rod over it but hover directly over the magnet dot--something to strive for and a skill to develop. I think it's good and a great toy!

The puzzle board promotes shape recognition and problem-solving skills. This toy is not only fun but also educational, helping children develop hand-eye coordination and learn about ocean animals. It encourages social interaction and cooperative play, and its compact design makes it convenient for travel. Highly recommended for its quality, educational value, and entertainment factor.

Given that the age range is 3-4, and our daughter is 4, and she likes fishing, I thought this would be a great winter toy; however, upon actually receiving the puzzle and looking it over, it was given to our son who was 16 months at the time (now 18 months).Our son started off by grabbing the magnet at the end of the pole and using that to pick up the creatures, slowly progressed to using the pole properly, and then progressed to placing the animals in their correct spots. This has been a wonderful first puzzle for him, and has really helped with his motor skills and reasoning. Our 4-year-old definitely likes to mess around with it, but it's too much of a baby toy for her.On some reviews there is talk of kids flailing the pole around, and I wanted to offer my own opinion on that. Pole or no pole, our son flings things and throws things, then we correct him and give him his toy back, and that's the end of it. A friend's son who is 3 intentionally uses the pole as a weapon, and does not stop when his parents correct him. If our daughter would have had this toy as a toddler, there is no way she would have done anything dangerous at all with the pole. It's all up to the individual child. If you know your kid would be safe with this toy, then it's a great purchase.

Highly recommend. It’s become the favourite toy of my almost one year old. She easily navigates the stick with the magnet in her tiny hands. The pictures have started to fade away due to heavy use but still serves the purpose.

Super fun with the kids!!