The first puzzle I bought for JX was a wooden jigsaw puzzle from Melissa & Doug. I chose wooden puzzles because they are sturdy and durable, it can withstand the everyday onslaught by the toddler.
Melissa & Doug Vehicles Peg
Beginner toddler puzzles should have:
1. big pieces.
2. a knob or peg (known as knob puzzles and peg puzzles) on each piece for ease of handling.
3. pictures on the board which correspond to the pictures at the jigsaw puzzle pieces ( for a young toddler, picture matching is easier than shape and size matching. )
4. subjects which suit the toddler’s interest (to motivate the toddler to be engaged in play)
At the beginning, JX needed lots of guidance, encouragement and support from me to solve the puzzle. I didn’t expect a 11 months old baby to spend long period of time play with the puzzles, so whenever JX has lost his interest, i would take the puzzle away.
After JX had mastered this set of puzzle, I bought him a more advanced set which was - 'Melissa & Doug beginner pattern blocks'. For this set of puzzle, the base of the hole in the board does not have any picture, so when you remove the pieces, there’s just a blank space with its own shape. It's good to encourage toddler to learn matching the puzzle pieces with the shapes on the board. Besides, it also introduces toddler to the idea of adding elements to one picture.
Melissa & Doug Beginner Pattern Blocks
To my surprise, JX loves playing with this new set of puzzle (he still loves playing with it now). He could play quietly and tried to solve the puzzle by himself (there are a total of 10 different design patterns in this block set) and I managed to regain some time to do some household chores. There were times when he encountered problem to fit in certain pieces of the puzzles but with some encouragement and minimum help from me, he was able to overcome his frustration and continue to try.
So, from my observation, puzzles are excellent learning tools as they encourage children to :
1. Develop hand-eye co-ordination
2. Develop the manual dexterity and co-ordination of their hands and fingers
3. Use reasoning and analysis to find and match the correct piece with the correct space
4. Differentiate features of each different piece (shape, size, colour, picture)
5. Ability to concentrate, and emotional control in terms of how to deal with frustration.
I am delighted to see the joy on JX's face every time after he has successfully solved the puzzles. Hence, I decided to add more puzzles to his collections.
(left) Melissa & Doug See-Inside Alphabet Peg Puzzle (right) Melissa & Doug See-Inside Numbers Peg
I also bought JX a '2-pieces per-picture puzzle' to increase his logical thinking ability.
And now (at 21 months old), JX loves solving puzzle. For more fun and challenge, recently I bought him a 3-4 piece cardboard puzzles.
Have you planned on adding a jigsaw puzzle for your toddler? If so, I highly recommend you to do so.
2 comments:
The wooden shape puzzles that you gave CY, he likes to put the shapes into his mouth, he also likes to keep/throw the shapes into his "secret cupboard" which is our tv cabinet but has a lot of his junk in there...he also likes to throw the puzzles here and there, crawl/slide with the puzzles on the floor...The last thing he will do is to play with the puzzle properly :p
When I showed him the the way to play with the puzzles, he'll lost interest very fast...
Perhaps i should follow your suggestions to give him more guidance and encouragement... 好惭愧!
CY may be busy developing other skills now, maybe you can try to reintroduce it again next month. Every kids has their own preference to learn about the world around them, I wonder how CY's 'secret cupboard' looks like? ^.^
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