First Puzzle

I recently began visiting with a new family of five, including a 25 month old little girl- AO, who are all so excited to start the program and begin learning new things. One of the activities that I brought during the introductory visit was a 9 piece puzzle depicting children swimming in a pool. Mom was very curious and noted that she had not thought to do puzzles with her child, and so this was AO's first experience with a puzzle. AO immediately became excited and began describing what was going on in the picture, even acting out the child reaching up to catch the beach ball. After dumping it out and Mom modeling how to do a puzzle for a very confused AO, AO decided that she would give it a try. She began picking up each piece and recalling and discussing where in the picture it was, and how that piece works with the other pieces that were already in place. She looked at both the surrounding picture as well as the pieces shape in deciding where each piece belonged. The way that she worked the puzzle was very thoughtful and she took her time. I did not expect her to do so well with the puzzle, just given her age, and I told Mom that I felt that she seemed to have a natural talent for puzzles and spacial awareness. Her Mother commented that if I had not come and brought the puzzle she probably would not have purchased any, or offered AO any opportunity to do puzzles, and was very grateful for this opportunity to recognize and encourage her daughter's skill. Mom reported that she knew that books were very important and she had made sure to read, but that she had not ever thought to introduce puzzles. I then showed her how she could make her own puzzles by cutting off the fronts of printed cereal, diaper, or toy cardboard boxes then cutting them into large unique pieces for AO to piece back together again. Mom said that she already feels like she is giving her daughter a head start for school that she did not have the opportunity to give to her oldest, and that it was only our first day together! It was such a great day for all of us.

JT