We do a lot of puzzle play in our house and if we've gone through our stack of 10 or 12 puzzles more then once in a day the challenge starts to dwindle. And, over time a child starts to memorize or become so familiar with a puzzle that they are no longer gaining any skills with the puzzle play. And generally speaking, this is totally fine as repetition and comfortability are also important aspects of play, but if you are looking to further challenge your child or be able to use the same toys for longer periods of time then I have a few suggestions on how to do that.
So, the first thing that I do with O when we're working on the same puzzles for the umpteenth time are to lay out two boards at once.
This provides an added challenge because there are double the spaces where a piece might go and this requires even more attention to detail (color, shape, size).
The next idea is to lay down the pieces of the puzzle upside down and in a varied order. This requires the child to pick the piece up without seeing the picture AND they have to manipulate the piece so that it's facing the correct way to fit on the board.
Adding these challenges to puzzle play helps to build level of concentration and focus, observation and problem solving skills AND you get extended use out of toys that you might have had to put away.
Other suggestions on ways to extend puzzle play:
* language development - label each puzzle piece by name, tell a story with the puzzle pieces
*cognitive - label colors, shapes and sizes, count pieces as they are place on board
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