We did so many things this week that I don't know where to start. But I shall first write about the little girl's craze over puzzles. Many months ago, before she could even walk, I had bought those jumbo knob puzzles from Melissa & Doug. She removed the pieces, tried to put them back, couldn't get them in, then lost interest. But the puzzles were always there, within reach, just in case she wanted to try them again, but I'm usually the one putting the pieces back in after she'd removed them.
Then about 2 months back I think, when she was 19 months old, she went to the knob puzzles as usual and removed the pieces. It was a three-piece puzzle with an elephant, a lion and a giraffe. I told her that the animals wanted to go home and asked her to send the animals home. I don't know if it coincided with the fact that we had started going to the zoo at about the same time and had seen those animals. In any case, she picked them up by the knobs, and successfully put them back in!
Since then, there is no turning back. She plays with her puzzles every single day, especially when I'm dressing her up after her morning and evening bath. She has outgrown those knob puzzles and moved on to chunky puzzles from Melissa & Doug. She does each of them twice or thrice before moving on to the next one. Although we have six of these, they seem to fly by really quickly. I have a dinosaur one which I'm waiting to open when the need arises.
Playing with her chunky puzzles one afternoon
I have a magnetic bugs puzzle from Melissa & Doug too which is more challenging for her. She will remove the pieces with a magnet but putting them back in is not as easy as they don't come with a matching picture below them on the board so she very much has to do it based on memory or with my help.
Recently I had bought some peg puzzles for her too for her to practise her pincer grip. She has a marine one from Melissa & Doug and two big ones - alphabet and numbers - from Mothercare. The ones from Mothercare are such a steal as they are at $15 each before discount. The big alphabet and number puzzles from Melissa & Doug are not only double the mass, but double the price too. Yup, comparing prices is very important for a part-time working mother like me. No more spending without batting an eyelid like in the past.
Alphabet puzzle with pictures below the pieces
Number and shape puzzle
She can do the number puzzle more independently now but still needs help with the alphabet puzzle. I try to give as little help as possible, something like "W is for whale" and then she'll look for the whale and slot in the piece. With all the other puzzles, except for the alphabet one, I try to make it more challenging for her by putting the puzzle pieces upside down, on its side, or facing down. She's not ready for the more complicated George Luck puzzles so I'm really wondering what else I can do for her now since she loves puzzles so much. I've tried giving her two-piece animal matching puzzles to do and she seemed to like those too. I guess it's time to move on to new types of puzzles to continue stretching her ability and sustaining her interest.
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