puzzle: a problem, game or device that calls for inventive skill or reasoning

Ethan has a new hobby- puzzles! He does them ALL day long and we have watched almost no television and not a single dvd in three days! He loves working on them that much! However, we have been to three stores to find more puzzles for Ethan to do!

He now has quite a collection of puzzles, including: Belle, Ariel, Cinderella, Barbie, 2- Toy Story, Clifford, Pooh Bear, Elmo, Scooby, and Curious George. Each puzzle has 24 or 25 pieces and is designed for children 3 and over. Ethan can do all of them completely on his own. In fact, unless he is tired, he does NOT want help! He is very specific about which puzzle he wants to do. He does not want to put them away until the table is completely covered with finished puzzles, then he is happy to "mess up" the puzzles and put them in the bags- so he can start the process all over again!


It all started when he pulled out this Beauty and the Beast puzzle from our game shelf. He and mostly I spent a whole morning putting it together. He LOVED it and after I put it away, he wanted to do it again. It takes quite a while, so I pulled out a smaller puzzle instead. I realized that he did most the work, so I pulled down another one and left him to it. A little while later, he came running in to the kitchen shouting, "Done Mom, Done!!" Sure enough, he had finished it without my help. And now, he's an addict!

I love watching him work. I wish I could see what was going on in his brain! These are some of the things I have observed:

• He likes to match up eyes. It's the one thing that gets him quite excited before the big finish.
• He generally puts faces together first.
• He seems to have good spatial ability because he turns the pieces to try and fit the needed shape even if the piece doesn't end up being the right one (does that even make sense? are there names for the part of the puzzle piece that is cut away and the part that sticks out?)
• He does not have any sense of straight edges though. They are always the last thing he does, except for the few pieces that have very obvious parts to the picture.
• When he does a puzzle again, he remembers the pieces- he picks one up and knows right where to put it or he knows just what piece he needs next.
• He is very serious when he works. His face reads serious concentration.

Once the last piece is in place, he jumps and runs for hugs and smiles from ear to ear... It's almost like watching a victory dance, you can tell he is absolutely delighted! What you can't tell is if he is delighted with himself or with the puzzle! Either way, we love seeing his happy dance!

The possibilities of this hobby are progressing. For both of us. We have added music to the background (Classic Disney of course!) which has him dancing while he works. We are adding tables to give him more space. And I am realizing how much this frees me up to do things! If I can tear myself away from watching my amazing little guy, I just might get some things done!!