puzzle addict!

To my surprise, my 2.5 years old boy becomes a puzzle addict soon after he received his first puzzle two months ago.
It was only a six set of simple puzzle, range from 4 to 12 piece of jigsaw puzzle.
Then, started from a very simple puzzle to a range selection of a more complex puzzle, he can easily assemble it.

Believe me, he can.

As I afore mentioned, his very first puzzle was a mini cartoon animal puzzle with only four pieces jigsaw. He can assemble it in a minute. Then I gave him a set of 9,12,24 piece jigsaws, one by one after he finished the simple one.
But those puzzles still have its jigsaw form for each piece to make the work easier.
So I think it is not really surprising that he can build a 24-piece jigsaws in five to seven minutes.

Then I bought him a jigsaw book consist of 24-pieces jigsaw with no form to help him recognize the pattern.
My my..after one and two trial, he can assemble the jigsaw quickly.
Even I need more time to do it, coz the picture is quite complicated: with ocean thematic puzzle, every pieces dominated by blue color.
To my surprise again, he can also assemble them quickly although he mixed all the pieces of puzzle consist of 6 pages.
Hmm, it means that a set of 24 pieces x 6 : 144 pieces of jigsaw!

Well I must say, I'm pretty much impressed =)

Just when I think that he needs a more challenging puzzle to assemble, me and my husband found a jumbo floor puzzle consist of 64 pieces puzzle. There were only two choice in that store: football game and oceanic theme.
As I already guessed, my boy picked the one with the oceanic theme.

We assembled the puzzle altogether -my boy, me and my husband- right after we reach home. With a great enthusiasm, but yet a bit confusing since we need around 20 minutes to finish it. Yes, that long.
But we got the sense of accomplishment from completing it altogether.
Soon after that, the fun is over for us: me, and my husband.
But of course, not for my little one.

He loves that puzzle very much. He built that floor puzzle over and over again, and always do it faster than the previous one.
Maybe it was the jumbo colorful pieces of sea creatures that attracted him so much, or maybe, it was the fun itself: to assemble one by one piece and satisfaction from completing it by himself.
He always say: I can! I can! I can! everytime he completes the puzzle by himself.

To me, it was such a pleasure to see him very enthusiast with his achievement. I also enjoy watching him crawl around the floor working on his puzzle. To some extent, it even amazes me of how he can be that fast completing 64 pieces of puzzle.
Last time I checked, he can finish it within ten minutes only -including an interval when he sang a song about sea creature and called their names.

Seen from educative-goal perspective, many says that playing with puzzles is a fantastic way for kids to build dexterity and problem-solving abilities. Puzzles encourage creativity, sharing, basic skills and learning skills, such as reading and mathematics.
My SIL who works as a kindergarden teacher told me once that being able to work on a quiet complex puzzles in a quiet short time, not to forget that he is still only two-and-half years old, my boy has a very good focus and memory.
She even told me that in her classes most of the students whom their age is around three to five are still unable to complete 24 piece of puzzle in a short time without teacher's guidance.

Well, well, well, that sounds a good review for my boy, isn't that?

Anyhow, this little discovery about his new addiction makes me very enthusiast to buy him more and more puzzles. Too bad I still can't find many options for a good quality and complex but yet attractive puzzle for him in town.
I guess online shopping is my only choice for this. There are so many nice and attractive floor puzzle sell online, although most of the good one are usually sell in the USA.

Seen in this light, guess now I'm the one who is getting obsessed!
not only with the puzzle, but as well as for the shopping!