DIY Jigsaw Puzzle from an Existing Jigsaw Puzzle

 

If your Mini is as crazy as mine is about jigsaw puzzles, then this one is for you! 

I noticed my little one's fondness for puzzles right from a very early age. I introduced him to knob and chunky puzzles at around 16 months and he immediately took to them. He would ask for them everyday and keep himself busy solving them. And then slowly we moved onto 2-3 pieces jigsaw puzzles at around 22 months. By the age of 25 months he was loving solving 9-12 pieces puzzles. 

Apart from these little jigsaw puzzles, we also have a couple of floor puzzles which are 24-36 pieces and the Mini and I do them together every now and then. Very recently, at the age of 33 months, he has begun doing these bigger puzzles all by himself. It is such a joy to watch him get so engrossed in finding and fixing the pieces of the puzzle together and the delight in his eyes when he completes the puzzles! :)

We have a good collection of jigsaw puzzles to suit my little boy's interests. Vehicles being his primary interest, most of our puzzles are based around them. He loves doing them over and over again and is not yet bored of any of them! I however felt, a little bit of variety would help and so wanted to try adding in more range to our current set of puzzles.

I came across this idea of drawing a picture on plain puzzle pieces and actually making your own personalised jigsaw puzzles! I wanted to try that too only, I did not know where to find plain jigsaw pieces. One day, it just occurred to me that most of the puzzles that we have, are plain at the bottom! I could just flip over the puzzle and use the bottom side to create my own jigsaw puzzle there.... and so that what I did! :D 

I used the backside of two of our little 12 pieces wooden jigsaw puzzles to make new puzzles. I drew some basic shapes with different coloured markers on one and wrote numbers from 1-12 on the other. The little guy is happy with these new additions to his puzzles collection :)

 

Bye Bye 'ABC'

Our weekend was all about the white board and ABCs! We played a few different games and this one in particular was a huge hit with the Mini. Its amazing how just very minimal things sometimes, bring the most joy! All we had at hand for this game is our white board, marker pen and the white board eraser. The delight on the Mini's face was absolutely priceless! :)

I named this fun little game - 'Bye Bye ABC!'  

I just randomly wrote a few letters on the white board, handed over the eraser to the Mini, called out one letter at a time and got him to erase them off the white board one by one! That's it!

Oh I almost forgot to tell you the most fun part... we bid them 'Bye Bye' before we erased them !! :D

This super simple little, as silly as it may sound teaches the helps the little ones a few important little skills. It improves auditory skill when then listen intently to the letter being called out, sharpens their letter recognition skill, and finally aids in gross motor skill when they use their chubby little hands to erase off the letter.

Along with my little boy, I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game with him. The best memories are created, then we enjoy being silly and happy while doing fun little things together :)

Sticky Notes Memory Game (Shapes)

A few weeks ago, we discovered that all we needed was our white board, some sticky notes and some markers to keep us entertained for a good deal of time! :) I have been coming up with quite a few variations of early learning activities with just these three items and this is one of them.

Most of our activities these days revolve around ABC, colours and shapes. Because the Mini is obsessed with these :) So for this particular activity, I chose to base it around some basic shapes. The concept is the same just like any other memory game - remembering, finding and pairing the similar items.

This was the first time I was playing a memory game with him, so was not sure if he would grasp the concept. But to my delight he did, and enjoyed it thoroughly too! :)

You can do this activity based around what interests your child. Numbers, Letters, Names etc. We based it around shapes for this one and eventually tried other variations too. Its a lovely little game to help little ones improve their memory power. Happy playing! :)

ABC Fishing Game

Now, which kid doesn't like water play!? Well, I know mine loves it! :) Splishing and splashing... he can be in water all day, if allowed! :D I have read, that water play has a good calming affect on children. I have actually noticed that with my little boy. All hid bad mood just vanishes the moment he is in his bath! Its such a delight to watch him enjoy in his little tub.

So the other day, I decided to put together his love for water and ABCs and made up this fun little game of ABC Fishing! Yes, there is a fair bit of cleanup required after such water play... but hey, what is childhood if not for such little fun memories!

It took me 5 minutes to set this up for him. I used up the little plastic ABCs from a peg board set, some foam ABCs from a puzzle and a little sieve from our beach play set for this game. So basically all things that were already available with us.

So, this is almost a zero prep game... OK let me say minimal prep game. Go on now... get your Mini playing! :)