My kids learned and practiced their fine motor skills, visual perception, and patience.

The pieces are well built and sturdy with great colors and pictures. My kids loved the magnets and hooking the pieces together in different ways. It was good for working on cooperation. My 2 1/2 year old liked stacking the pieces, and the magnets helped keep it upright. I liked how it encouraged persistence for my 4 and 5 year olds. It wasn't easy to put together, even after they had done it a few times, but it was interesting enough that they wanted to keep playing with it and trying.

I think this would be more appropriate for kids 3-5 then 18 months-3. The younger group enjoyed stacking and building with the pieces, but were not able to put the puzzle together. My 4 and 5 year olds spent quite a bit of time working and reworking and came back on different days to play with it. Even my older kids enjoyed building it and found it quite challenging without being able to copy the picture. Very unique interesting puzzle concept for kids who are ready for a different type of challenge!