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Well, the puzzles were a BIG hit! The 48 piece ones seemed to be the right size. The 100 piece ones seemed to be a bit too much and she lost interest half way through.

However, what she's really obsessed with lately is the TAG system that we picked up like new for $30 at a consignment shop. She's been playing with that non-stop! Unfortunately, it didn't come with the cable to add more books so we need to pick one up somewhere since two of the books it came with weren't preloaded. She's been memorizing some of the new books we got for her too so the TAG system seems to be a timely gift.

Did you get this one, out of curiosity?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000088UPU

Haha, yep, how did you know? She did the top half and a bit of the bottom and eventually gave up.

I was just curious. My son wound up loving that one, but initially found it tougher than average because of some of the ambiguous patterns (sections on the whale body, etc.). I was hoping your daughter would like it because the shape might make it easier than a squarer one, the subject matter is fun, and it's really big.

I took DS 2.5 to register for preschool yesterday. During the tour the director was showing us the puzzle area. The hardest puzzles in the early classroom were 8 pieces! I asked if they had harder puzzles and she said they had 12 and 24 piece puzzles in the older classrooms. I explained that he could do 48+ piece puzzles and she pretty quiet for a moment and then said that she would make sure they got some for him for when he starts in the fall. So nice to have an accomodation made without making a big deal about it.

That got me to thinking about how rare it is for toddlers to do advanced puzzles. Both of the my kids were good at puzzles and I really never thought too much about it. Is it that rare?

Sounds like the director is a thoughtful person, which is excellent. But remember that new puzzles alone don't make the difference, the most interesting thing in any environment for most people is 'people.' I would thank the director for the more complicated puzzles, and ask her to allow your son to spend time in the older classrooms. She will probably want to observe him in a variety of setting to determine the best one.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

I think it's like everything else we discuss here: less rare in our kids than the population at large, and probably getting less rare all the time in the population at large. Early puzzle ability probably will be seen more in visual-spatial learners, but I'm certainly no expert.

I think that aside from how rare your kid is in their experience at that preschool, though, having a maximum of 8-piece puzzles in a room for preschoolers falls in the category of severe dumbing-down. I'd carefully evaluate everything else he will be exposed to, but it sounds like you've got them listening already, which is good.

My older DD went to the same preschool and I know that they will make any and every accomodation that they can for him. She loved preschool so much that real school was a big let down for her, in comparison. In the grand scheme of things I can see how puzzles are just one little thing, but it was nice to have that first 'little thing' responded to in a positive way.

It just struck me as odd when the director said that many of the three year olds entering their program have never tried puzzles before(hence why they have the easy ones, I guess).

Gotcha. Well, I tend to think this is more evidence that there's a bit of an innate teacher in most smart parents, which might just be based on emulating how they were raised and taught by their own parents. It's sad that the average parent may not understand that puzzles can develop thinking talents, and instead buy the Barbie princess thingie or HotWheels racetrack du jour. (Nothing wrong with that, unless the fun-dumb toys exclude the developmental ones.)

My kids are really not puzzle kids (DS is a bit more than DD). In this case, I think they're about average for kids of educated parents who are not gifted in this arena. DS was doing 24-piece puzzles at about 2.75, and that's still about right for him. Most 24-piecers say 3 and up, suggesting that 3yos can often do them. So I'd say that if a classroom for kids who are preschool age, meaning between 2 and 5, only has 8-piecers...that would be weird. I would say that by age 5, many bright-average kids of involved and educated adults can do 48-piecers and some can do 100 pieces. DD and her best friend both seemed sort of highish average on this and both were doing 100-piecers at 5. I do think puzzling improves quickly with practice, though.