Jigsaw puzzles are a miracle activity.
I have a very independent 3-year-old, whom can play by herself pretty well. If you have a child that's at least 16 months old, I would highly recommend jigsaw puzzles with him or her. It's been a blessing and an attention grabber that is nearly similar to television. I did try to give her puzzles when she was only two, but she didn't have the motor skills. It may have been even earlier than that.
She likes to play with things that make her think, she even has a thinking face that people say looks like mine. My sister-in-law also had a three-year-old that was very rambunctious, but super intelligent. She was able to grab his attention with jigsaw puzzles, so I thought I would give it a try. Without them he needed constant discipline and a very frequent change of entertainment.
I started with four, five, and six piece puzzles that had the cardboard backing. Within an hour she mastered that level. What I didn't anticipate was that she also got better with different pictures, but the same pieces. To be clear, the lower level puzzles that I found have different designs, but they cut the same piece shapes, so her experience translated over and was able to complete new puzzles much faster.
I moved her up to 15, 20, and 25 pieces still with the backing within a week of introducing puzzles. This really seems to be her perfect difficulty level for the momemt. I taught her the rules to find the corner pieces first, then the side pieces, then the middle. She'll now play all by yourself for hours if I let her. Of course, I still have to feed, toilet her and go outside, or she won't be tired enough to sleep later on. However, It was the middle of July and just too hot to go out for long, so i was able to test her attention span with the puzzle.
Whenever she gets stuck, I just guide her. She doesn't get upset I'm interfering, but that's more of her personality. Putting the next piece in gives enough of a reward to not be antsy about pushing forward for a difficult puzzle. I'm really hoping to get her to a level where she can do a jigsaw puzzle in the 50 to 100 piece range without the cardboard backing. If she is able to, I'll hang it up after she's bored with it, like I used to do as a child for the 1,000 piece puzzles. I also loved puzzles growing up, so it may be a genetic trait. If any of the parents of your child loves doing puzzles, I would consider trying them with even more emphasis.
As a side note, her motor skills and hand manipulation have also increased. She is able to handle her fork better. I've also introduced some Montessori games, which I will get into in a subsequent post.
What other brain games do you do for your toddler? I'm specifically looking for something cheap and easy to clean up.