Amy and puzzles

[pne]

When Amy was younger (about two or so), she was really good at simple puzzles—even ones she had never seen before.

However, she seems to have become lazy and to prefer ones she knows by heart, where she knows where every piece goes.

She got frustrated this morning while doing a new puzzle (6×8) after putting down ten or so pieces, because she didn’t know where a specific piece goes. I suggested that she put that piece back and look for pieces that will match the ones already laid out, rather than wanting to put down specific pieces she might have picked up, but she refused. She said she wanted to do “her old Winnie-the-Pooh puzzle”—a 4×5 one that Stella had already put away in the cellar because she feels Amy’s too old for that now since it’s no longer challenging in the least. So instead she got out another game.

Ah well. I wonder whether she’ll get back the curiosity, pattern-matching skills, and determination that let her solve puzzles earlier.

Comments

[pthalo]

When I put puzzle together, I sift through the pieces, find the ones that speak to me, and then put them all in place. Though I'm doing a 1500 piece puzzle right now. So I guess my method is sort of similar to Amy's, but I don't get frustrated when I don't know where something goes. I accept that it probably goes somewhere in the middle and ignore it.

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

I wonder if this is caused by rapid -- and hungry, for lack of a better word -- development in other brain functions at this age. I'm finding a similar thing with Maggie -- where she used to pick up something new and examine it for the longest time to determine every possible thing it might do, she now flits from one thing to another pretty quickly. I suspect Maggie also would have been better at puzzles when she was 18 months or two years old than she is now, but we never had any for her at that age so I can't say for sure.

I'm looking forward to the day Maggie regains that determination, focus, and patience! :)