Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The puzzling prodigy

So we've always known that Ruben is particularly smart. He caught onto language really early and easily. He's constantly surprising us with information that we thought might be above his comprehension level. Granted, he's socially and emotionally a normal two year old so his intelligence at times jumps out and surprises us all. For June's fourth birthday I found a 48 piece floor puzzle that I thought would be a great activity to tackle during the transition time between Davenport and Palatine. We had one floor puzzle that the kids enjoyed doing together, but Ruben never showed any particular interest in doing puzzles before I purchased this kitty tea party puzzle for June's birthday. While we were staying at the Hefernan's house for a week, we probably completed this puzzle 20 times. I really don't feel like I'm exaggerating. Ruben, especially, just loved the puzzle. With some of our gift card money we went to Target in search of other good puzzles but came back with some 48 piece junky puzzles that the kids liked but were hard to put together. His fine motor skills are closer to that of a two year old than a four year old. We received another floor puzzle as a gift and I found another one at Goodwill, so now we at least rotate between three puzzles. We also bought a whole bunch of smaller 24 piece puzzles that are quick and rewarding. Our puzzle stash is built up and now puzzle time is a regular part of the day. For a while I was impressed by Ruben's puzzle skills but assumed he wouldn't have the attention span for independent puzzling but the other day while I was in the shower I came out to a completed 24 piece puzzle on the living room floor. The kids have different strategies when it comes to doing puzzles. June likes to complete the whole edge first or at least the whole sky or the whole ground. Ruben on the other hand, picks an object within the puzzle and build the pieces out from that one image. Edges and corners are fairly insignificant to him. Weller Inn, Look Out! We've got another puzzler on our hands.

1 comment:

  1. He looks so grown up. I love puzzles, but Eric hates them. I look forward to the day we can work on a puzzle together, or I can sit back and watch him in action!

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