Jigsaw Puzzles - Tools For Raising Children

Jigsaw puzzles played a big part in the way my parents raised me as a kid. We would spend hours putting together puzzles, and I learned as a child some of the great lessons that jigsaw puzzles have to offer.

I still remember going to the store every couple weeks with mom to buy jigsaw puzzles. We would choose a few fun puzzles with cartoon characters, but mostly we would select puzzles of distant lands or puzzles with images of cultures and ideas that were different from our own.

Puzzles

We would return home and spend quality time together with the entire family, putting together our new jigsaw puzzles. As we put the puzzles together at the end of the day, Dad would always ask me about my day (this was the time of my day I most looked forward to each day) and what I thought about different things going on in the family and around town. Mom would always teach us about what we saw in the puzzle we were putting together.

I can remember putting together a jigsaw puzzle that had an image of a little wooden shack with an elderly man holding a bundle of sticks on his back next to his little wooden shack, a beautiful scene of mountains in the far distance. Mom and Dad told me all about Tibet, and the beautiful mountains in the area. They taught me how some people live differently in other lands. I remember asking why the man that looked like grandpa had to work so hard with the heavy sticks on his back. We spent hours in great conversation, learning about the world around us - all through the help of a simple jigsaw puzzle.

Now as look at my own son as he sites in front of the television for the greater part of the day, I wonder to myself if I can still find good places to buy jigsaw puzzles that my son will enjoy as much as I enjoyed the puzzles of my childhood. I wonder perhaps if I can teach him like my parents taught me - using jigsaw puzzles as a tool to raise my son.

Jigsaw Puzzles - Tools For Raising Children

Looking for a great place to buy jigsaw puzzles? I've found that Wholesale Puzzles has a great collection of the Big Ben Puzzles I used to put together as a child.