Kids: Enjoying a Mini Jigsaw Puzzle

When you want to teach kids something, you have to keep it fresh and fun.  It's also good if it's a multi-learning approach like playing with jigsaw puzzles.  I am so thankful that my friend Erlinda gave us this mini jigsaw puzzle because it was challenging but fun. 

Here are the reasons why I appreciate it:

• The jigsaw puzzle allowed me to test Dylan's attention span.   He usually can't sit still for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time on a specific activity.  He will occasionally shift his focus on something else and start fidgeting once he feels unable to finish a particular task.  With the jigsaw puzzle, he was fidgety at first but stuck to it after little prompting and encouragement.  

• The small pieces gave him some trouble at first because they can be difficult to put together.  This tested his fine motor skills.  He initially kept asking for help but after showing him how to do it, he tried doing it by himself and succeeded.  He was more confident after that.

• The fine details in such small pieces can be distracting.  It can be difficult to put together and even I made a few mistakes with it.  He got a little frustrated and wanted to quit but we persevered - slowly but surely.  We laughed a number of times because we both got it wrong :) So he felt comfortable even while making mistakes because I made mistakes too.  It was okay.

• He got the hang of finding the patterns and matching colors pretty easily.  and with his eye for finer details, he was able to discern the differences in the smaller flowers than I did and I made sure that he got props for that! :)
  

• Since the elephants faced left and right, it was a good exercise for teaching directions too.  

In the end, it was simply a good bonding activity, one that can be enjoyed over and over again.  I guess I'll monitor our elapsed speed next time we do it.  

 He felt really good about accomplishing this mini jigsaw puzzle!!