The Whompton girls are puzzle fiends!
Raina LOVED puzzles when she was younger -- she still does, in fact -- but she devoured them when she was in the 1.5 - 3 years range. She did the simple peg puzzles, advanced to simple jigsaw puzzles, then 24 piece puzzles, then 48 piece puzzles, then 63 piece puzzles. At that point we stopped giving her puzzles; she was too small to reach across puzzles larger than those without accidently breaking them apart. And then Lola arrived and having teeny-tiny puzzle pieces out was a babyproofing no-no. Raina hasn't done many puzzles in the last 2.5 years, which is a shame because she enjoyed them so much.
Lola wasn't as game-on to puzzles as Raina was, and then suddenly something switched and Lola has become a puzzle fanatic. At least once a day we'll hear her say "I go play puzzle." (This is especially well timed, because the STL winter weather this year has been frightful and all calm indoor activities are welcome.) We pulled out all the peg puzzles, which she has mastered, and so we broke out the simple jigsaws. Lola is definitely in the trial and error strategy faze of puzzles -- she's not looking for or recognizing patterns of matching pieces -- so putting together jigsaws is a time-consuming affair. Tonight, though, she practiced on a 9 piece puzzle six straight times and got her overall time down to about 2 minutes! Practice, practice, practice, Lola! We obtained four new 12 piece jigsaws for her, and I cannot wait to see how she responds to those next.
And, of course, the girls play puzzles together. Raina is incredibly patient with Lola and she tries her best to help out her little sister. It's wonderful to see.
The corollary joy is that Raina has rediscovered puzzles. She has re-worked all the puzzles in her puzzle bin -- including 100 piece puzzles in the space of 15 minutes -- and she received some new ones from family members over the holidays, so she has novelty in some puzzles. But, clearly, it's time to upgrade for her too. Is there something in between 100 and 250 pieces? I hope so.
Lola wasn't as game-on to puzzles as Raina was, and then suddenly something switched and Lola has become a puzzle fanatic. At least once a day we'll hear her say "I go play puzzle." (This is especially well timed, because the STL winter weather this year has been frightful and all calm indoor activities are welcome.) We pulled out all the peg puzzles, which she has mastered, and so we broke out the simple jigsaws. Lola is definitely in the trial and error strategy faze of puzzles -- she's not looking for or recognizing patterns of matching pieces -- so putting together jigsaws is a time-consuming affair. Tonight, though, she practiced on a 9 piece puzzle six straight times and got her overall time down to about 2 minutes! Practice, practice, practice, Lola! We obtained four new 12 piece jigsaws for her, and I cannot wait to see how she responds to those next.
And, of course, the girls play puzzles together. Raina is incredibly patient with Lola and she tries her best to help out her little sister. It's wonderful to see.
The corollary joy is that Raina has rediscovered puzzles. She has re-worked all the puzzles in her puzzle bin -- including 100 piece puzzles in the space of 15 minutes -- and she received some new ones from family members over the holidays, so she has novelty in some puzzles. But, clearly, it's time to upgrade for her too. Is there something in between 100 and 250 pieces? I hope so.
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