Who doesn’t love puzzles ? Truthfully me, I was never a very big fan, I don’t have the patience or mind set to truly enjoy them. That all changed with the birth of my little princess. Everyone knows of the baby puzzles and there importance in developing cognitive skills, problem solving, visual recognition, memory, shapes, colors and much more which is why I am going to focus on some other ways to look at puzzles.
My grandmother use to love making puzzles and she would always glue them together when she was done, I never asked but I assume she liked the challenge, the tranquility of the time to herself and the sense of accomplishment when completing a difficult puzzle so this got me to thinking how can I use puzzles in my little princesses life without me having to do the bigger puzzles. After she grew out of the infant puzzles and block puzzles Kiara naturally was ready to advance to the childrens puzzles( 25-100 pieces) but had kind of grown bored with them, this is were my plan was put into place. I decided not to make it about the learning in the traditional sense but more of the creative sense which is what she always seemed to gravitate towards. We did not have a lot of money so I solved multiple problems with one cheap tactic. I would get a Disney princess puzzle and in the beginning we would solve it together with me always making it a huge deal when I got a piece so she would think it was when she did as well. Remembering how my grandmother would glue the puzzles I began doing the same for Kiara and having her hang them on her walls. I choose Disney princess for a few simple reasons: 1. She was four when we started and in her princess phase 2. There are too many varieties to count and 3. They are readily available at walmart, target and most dollar stores. This began to evolve into several bonding activities besides the obvious of doing the puzzles together there is the tradition of hanging them on the wall which I always allow her to pick the spot and of course going to the store to pick out the next puzzle (generally reserved for rainy days as we like to spend as much outdoor time as possible). Kiara also began to think puzzles were cool and not just for kids when she saw how into puzzles my fiance (Iva) was, by this time she had begun to really look up to her as a female role model and associated her doing puzzles with being the intelligent and artistic woman she is , so naturally she too wanted to do them.
I found that the puzzles began to build her sense of pride, accomplishment and definitely independence as she was very proud to be in charge of decorating her room and it became more more her space which lead to her taking a bigger sense of pride in keeping it clean.
Its funny how even things you might not have enjoyed as a child can come back to have such an important role in your life….thanks grandma, thanks Iva!
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