A Puzzling Time

About a week ago I did some reorganizing of some closets. One of the things I did was bring up our preschool age bins of puzzles for Evelyn. They have been down in the kids toy closet since we moved in almost 4 years ago. They haven't pulled them out since around the time we moved so I figured they had outgrown them. Apparently I was wrong.

No sooner had I moved them upstairs than they had them all dumped out on the living room floor. They were determined to do each and every one of them. Just like the good old days.

Ryland and Ally have this same trait of sticking their tongues out while they concentrate. Being only 6 Ryland has to concentrate on these puzzles much more than eight year old Ally does. He became fixated with our wooden map puzzle of the United States of America. Over a week later he still likes to pull this one out and have someone time him to see if he can complete it faster than the time before. Last I heard he was around 4 minutes and 40 seconds. Go Chub!

Ethan doesn't normally go around wearing blue paint on his face. He and Nate had just returned from a Webelos over nighter that had had an Avatar theme. He loved it. This particular puzzle he is holding up is one of two that Nate and I brought home for the kids from a trip we took in 2004. It is all the way from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Crazy that we traveled to the other side of the world and we brought home a very "American" gift. In fact Ally received a Disney Princess puzzle. Crazy.

We have two plastic bins we keep these puzzles in. These photos don't really show the extent of our preschool puzzle assortment. I keep one just for the puzzle bases and one for the puzzle pieces. I learned long ago that the only way I would keep them organized and my sanity in check was to organize those puppies. So I channeled my inner Monica and wrote on the back of EACH puzzle (and it's pieces) that we own, the name of the puzzle it belongs to.

For these puzzles that don't have their own individual boxes I used a sharpie to write the name of the puzzle and how many pieces on the back. Also on the ziploc baggie I wrote the name of the puzzle and how many pieces it should contain. I cannot tell you how many times this system has saved me through the years.

It was especially nice having it set up that way on this day. The kids did each and every puzzle and then put each and every one of them in their proper place. SUCCESS! Monica you rock!