Alyssa’s love for puzzles is fascinating. I’ve never seen anything like it. I remember when she used to get frustrated with board puzzles and they were only 9 pieces. When she finally mastered them, she was so proud. “Look, Daddy! I did it!” she’d exclaim.
A week ago we decided to move up to 25 piece puzzles. These are standard puzzles with oversized pieces. We picked Cars and Care Bears to start. At first, she would get frustrated and ask for help. I explained that you have to look at the picture and find the rest of the piece. I also tried to explain that the puzzle makes a rectangle with the flat edges out. It didn’t take long for her to get the hang of it. It now takes her about 15 minutes to solve a puzzle by herself! So, we picked up a Dora puzzle and a Disney Princess puzzle that creates three stand-up princesses.
The princess puzzles vary in difficulty and do not have a standard edge. I thought they were going to be too hard for her, but she did it! The fascinating part is how she goes about solving the puzzle. She divides them first by color to separate the princesses. Then, she picks one piece and tries all of the others in that spot until she finds a match. She talks to herself and says things like “No, this doesn’t go here.” and “Where’s Belle’s hand?” I watched in amazement. I think we’ll be looking for puzzles with 50 pieces soon.
I never realized how beneficial puzzles are for young children. They provide brain food for little minds. Puzzles help children develop a range of skills such as eye movement, eye-hand coordination, and concentration. They teach self-confidence and problem solving. They learn to isolate colors and search for designs and shapes. They make mistakes and learn from them. They stimulate the thinking side of the brain and force them to focus on problem solving skills such as process and logic. They are experimenting with process and learning which way works best for them. Upon completion of a puzzle, they have a sense of achievement. All of these skills can be transferred to every area of a child’s life.
Additionally, it’s a great way to entertain your child with something other than television or cartoons. It’s amazing when you see them so focused on completing a task and so proud to accomplish it. It’s rewarding for both the parent and child. If you haven’t introduced puzzles yet, I highly recommend it. You too will be puzzled!
2 comments:
I love my little puzzle solver. I hope she will tackle the Rubik's cube next.
That's awesome! Nate is still "puzzled" about puzzles. I got him one for his birthday that has latches on it. You undo the different latches to open the wooden doors and they have animals and numbers behind them. It was expensive but very cool. He's already able to do most of them and it's for a 3 yr old. I would've made one myself if I had more woodshop experience!
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