Jigsaw puzzles

Miss S has discovered she likes jigsaw puzzles.

We were loaned a set of 2 train puzzles – an alphabet and a number train – and she decided that she would work on that on the kitchen floor while I cooked dinner one day. It was terrific – she completed the puzzle in 2 hours (meaning I had 2 WHOLE hours to cook in peace without someone hanging off one leg and wanting attention). And she didn’t need my help – except to show her how to put the first pieces together and look at the picture on the box as a reference point.

Now here lies the problem. Having completed the puzzle, we tidied up after she showed Mr K what she accomplished when he got home from work. A couple of days later, I asked if she wanted to play with it again. She said, “But I’ve already done it”.

So, I made her some “new” puzzles from some stuff we have in our house.

The 3 puzzles

What you need:

Glue, calendar pages, cardboard, craft knife/scissors

What to do:

Cover the back of the calendar pages with glue

Stick the pages onto the cardboard. Let dry thoroughly - I put these in our hot water cupboard for about an hour.

Once dry, neaten the edges.

On the back, draw puzzle shapes.

Cut out the pieces carefully.

Puzzle # 2

Puzzle # 3

Puzzle playing in progress

What I learned:

1. Choose brightly coloured pages/pictures. I’d recycled our old calendars so had to raid our current one – which is neither bright nor colourful.
2. Make these after she has gone to bed, or you will be inundated with questions like “Can I play now? Are they ready yet?”.
3. Be prepared to spend a long time cutting out the pieces – which was why I decided on straight and wavy lines for the 2nd and 3rd puzzle.
4. Photograph/photocopy the puzzle before cutting so they can use that as a reference while they play.

Check out my related posts:

1. “Girls”
2. Outlines