Lessons and Puzzles

Over the last few weeks I've been hearing the lessons Ashley has been absorbing in our family. A couple of weeks ago Caitlin woke up in the middle of the night and wandered into our bedroom. I carried her back to her room and placed her in the bed beside Ashley. Caitlin snuggled up to Ashley, who stirred in her sleep and, basically still asleep with her eyes closed, groggily said to Caitlin, "I'm feeling squished, please scoot over Caitlin." And Caitlin scooted. I was so touched at how polite she was even in her sleep.

Earlier this week, Caitlin brought her breakfast under the breakfast table. She placed her dishes on a little blanket to make a picnic. I moved from the table over to the counter to make some tea. I heard Caitlin asking Ashley for help and Ashley joined her under the table. The next thing I hear is Ashley saying to Caitlin, "Helping means that we do it together. I'm not going to do it for you." and Caitlin replied with her adorable, "Okay." Later, Ashley was helping Caitlin do a jigsaw puzzle on the floor. Then she stopped helping and sat up on a little stool to watch. Caitlin asked her to help and Ashley responded, "No Caitlin, I'm not going to help. I know you can do it." She sounded very encouraging and Caitlin finished the puzzle.

Caitlin is addicted to jigsaw puzzles at the moment. She started with very large 24-piece floor puzzles, an alphabet on and a Peter Rabbit one that was a gift from grandma and granddad. A couple of weeks ago I picked up some children's 20-, 24- and 25-piece puzzles of Dora, Sesame Street, Winnie the Pooh and Disney's Ariel and Jasmine. The Dora and Sesame Street puzzles are the 20-iece ones. She started with those. Initially she needed a little assistance with strategy, for example, start with all the Dora pieces or all the Big Bird pieces. She quickly got the idea and was soon doing them by herself. As soon as she'd finish a puzzle she'd break it up say excitedly "again". Earlier this week she moved on to the 24-piece puzzles with Curious George. Again, she needed a little assistance at first and then she was off. Last night, she moved to the 25-piece Disney puzzles. These are a little different as they came in a box. The others all came in their own little tray that you fit the puzzle in. So you can use the try and its frame a bit of a guide. The 25-piece puzzles required Caitlin to work on the table with no context of the tray to show how large the puzzle would be. Again she needed some help with the Ariel amd Jasmine puzzles. By the time she started the Winnie the Pooh she was flying and did most if it without help.

Ashley likes to do the puzzles too, though not with the same gusto and addiction as Caitlin. Ashley likes Sudoku puzzles. We all became seduced by Sudoku when we visited James' brother Dave and his wife Lorna and their children last July. Lorna does Sudoku and by the time we left James, his mum and I were hooked. In August Ashley spotted a children's Sudoku book in a toy shop and we bought it. She really enjoys solving the puzzles with James or I. She likes to "win" one, which is what she calls solving a puzzle. Sudoku really helps her with number recognition, practicing number writing and paying attention to the number sequence so that she can deduce which number is missing.

I love watching the girls exercise their brains with puzzles. Their attention is engaged for long spells and they show such delight and satisfaction when they complete their puzzles. Very gratifying to watch.