Montessori Cultural Experiences

I'm sure it's not just a boy thing. Being good at piecing puzzles come from having spatial-intelligence, not gender specific. This is because my eldest daughter and my lil chubsy, are both great at puzzles from a young age.

Montessori's observation cues on the Sensitive Periods of every child helps us make visual and mental notes of these explosions to learning. A sudden surge of interest in a particular activity and one that persists for some time until that innate drive is sated.

The good thing about a Prepared Environment is that it is the positive step for educators and parents alike, to observe the inclinations of our young children during different phases of their growth. It is a non-stressful and non-threatening way of allowing a child to show us what he is very much into at different times of his or her life and how we can 'push' further this peak of interest in a particular area.

In chubs, even as young as 1, I observed that he was inclined to try out puzzles. This observation came about when chubs tried to help me put together a torn page from an old book I read to him. A trip to the store saw me grabbing a box of simple two to five puzzle pieces to test waters. Chubs worked on it like a tiger devouring his catch with much hunger. He would work on them over and over again and clap his hands. Next time I was out with him, I showed him a few other boxes of similar puzzles. He picked out sea creatures and dinosaurs and trotted off. So, I bought those and once again he worked on them tirelessly.

He moved on to 20 to 30-piece puzzles, mainly on Thomas the Tank Engine theme and I found it timely to introduce to him the zoology puzzles at the time. He was around 18 months during my first introduction to zoology puzzles.

Puzzles offer therapeutic relaxation to some adults. In some children like chubs and his eldest sister, they found the same peace working on puzzles as well. It helped to improve their concentration span (as they work on them to no end), to refine their finger muscles from picking up the puzzle pieces, and indirectly helped hone their spatial ability as the puzzles slowly increased in difficulty.

Children with spatial ability can; notice details we often miss (or dismiss!), use their visual reasoning for navigation and apply their mind's eye to view things from different spaces and angles some of us may not be able to visualize at first glance.

Here's sharing a video of chubs first few experiences working with simple puzzles. Is your child a puzzle lover too?