Puzzlemasters

About a year ago, Tiny and Buba were over at a friend’s house for a playdate, and I watched their little friend as he sat at the coffee table working on a 24-piece Thomas jigsaw puzzle. I couldn’t believe it. My kids were still working with the chunky wooden puzzles whose pieces just had to be turned appropriately to fit into the correct cut outs on the puzzle board. No way could they work a 24-piece jigsaw puzzle the way this kid was. I tried to get them to work on the puzzle for a bit after their friend had moved on to something else, but they just didn’t have the patience or the interest. So, I let it go. They’d get it someday when they were ready.

But in the days that followed, I could see that they were definitely ready to move on to more challenging puzzles than the wooden ones wit the chunky pegs. I just wasn’t sure how I could help with the transition.

And then, over the summer, I picked up some Infantino puzzles at a tag sale that seemed like the perfect next step. They were color/shape puzzles that had just 2 to 4 pieces per jigsaw puzzle. I left them out for Buba and Tiny to experiment with, and it wasn’t long before they were doing a great job fitting the pieces together.

Still, it was a bit of a struggle moving from 4-piece puzzles to 12-piece puzzles. The 12-piece ones were frustrating for Buba and Tiny. The kids wanted lots of help doing them and really needed me to sit with them in order for the puzzles to be fully completed. I kept the Infantio puzzles out for them to use whenever they liked, but put the 12 and 24-piece puzzles that we’d picked up at yard sales away for times when T or I could sit down and help Tiny and Buba work on them.

But then in November, we started quiet time in place of nap time. The kids each have a bag of quiet things to do and spend their quiet time in separate rooms. I filled Tiny and Buba’s bags with books, color wonder books, and 12-piece puzzles. Without an adult to help them, I wasn’t sure how Buba and Tiny would do with the puzzles. But in no time at all, they learned to master the 12-piece puzzles all on their own, and we were moving on to 24-piece jigsaw puzzles.

December came, and Tiny and Buba received a number of 24-piece puzzles as Christmas gifts. They were in puzzle heaven! But Tiny also received a 48-piece princess puzzle. I was sure that would be too much for her, but she put the whole thing together like it was nothing. It was clear that they were both ready and hungry for more.

T and I spent the next six weeks scouring the clearance racks at Target, Marshalls, and TJ Maxx looking for new puzzles for Tiny and Buba to tackle. And then one day, T decided that it was time to bring in some 100-piece puzzles. No way! I thought. It was such a big jump from 48 to 100 pieces. Surely 100 pieces would be too much for them.

And it was. At first. But now they’ve got it.

It’s incredible to see such fast growth from my children. It reminds me just how smart little kids are, and how quickly they can pick up something new when the desire is there and the time is right. Both Tiny and Buba are so proud of themselves and what great puzzlemasters they’ve become. And, of course, T and I are very proud of them too.