I am a jigsaw puzzle addict and I am encouraging my children to be the same.
I realized my problem the other evening while putting several boxes away in the kid's closet. As I tried to stack them on the top shelf (where there are dozens of puzzle boxes), they kept sliding back down onto my head and threatening to spill on the floor. A jigsaw puzzle nightmare flashed through my mind-what if all the puzzle boxes opened as they fell? Would I have the energy or inclination to sort them all out?
Puzzles are good for developing mental capacity. We have wooden puzzles for the toddler set with pictures under the pieces, and 24 piece ones for the preschooler (Maggie is my biggest fellow puzzle enthusiast). Our most challenging ones are the 100 piece ones that even Will and Mary need a little help starting. They always come to the point where they politely ask me to leave so they can finish it "by themselves". By the third time through all I have to do is put the box on the table and miraculously in a few hours it is completed ("did the puzzle fairy do it?").
Puzzles are good for developing mental capacity. We have wooden puzzles for the toddler set with pictures under the pieces, and 24 piece ones for the preschooler (Maggie is my biggest fellow puzzle enthusiast). Our most challenging ones are the 100 piece ones that even Will and Mary need a little help starting. They always come to the point where they politely ask me to leave so they can finish it "by themselves". By the third time through all I have to do is put the box on the table and miraculously in a few hours it is completed ("did the puzzle fairy do it?").
Games are also great for developing skills. Monopoly is good for learning about money and Scrabble is great for spelling. Card games like UNO teach matching as well as strategy. Usually classic games are better- I don't see much value in fare such as The Dating Game or Shop Til You Drop.
We came across a game recently that I like, but will have to save until Will is a little older called Mad Dash. It is a geography game in which you try to compile the longest road trip from your hand of 25 states. The states have to share a border so, for instance, if you have Maine, then you need New Hampshire (Maine is the only state that has just 1 neighboring state). Then you can add on Mass., Conn., New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland...
I like playing games and putting together jigsaw puzzles. Tim doesn't. That is why I'm priming the children to enjoy such fare as Chess and Checkers now so in the future I have a worthy opponent eager to battle it out for the championship.
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