Puzzle Meisters in Training

A puzzle meister is not created overnight. It takes hours and hours of hard work to instill a skill for puzzles and a love of puzzles in a young child. Oh sure, there is the occasional child with a natural love of jigsaw puzzles who seeks out puzzles on their own, but most puzzle meisters are trained up, not born.

Someone takes them in hand and introduces them to the craft of puzzling. They start with simple peg puzzles where the pieces fit into a single piece slot. Next simple jigsaw puzzles are played with: 9 piece puzzles, 12 piece puzzles, and 20 piece puzzles. Some days the same puzzle is done three times in a row. Other days a new puzzle is tried.

The student in training is given many different types of puzzles to work with, not just jigsaw puzzles with innie and outie pieces, but ones with gentle curves. Both frame puzzles and box puzzles are worked. Foam, wood, and cardboard--all types of puzzles are good training fodder.

Bentley is a grand puzzler (as we've mentioned a few times). He does 100 piece puzzles on his own (sometimes three or four in one afternoon) and he likes to do 300 piece puzzles with a companion. Jake and Viva are not so advanced. Of course, they are not as old as Bentley, but I think he was further along in the fine art of jigsaw puzzles when he was their age than they currently are.

I've been trying to make a special effort lately to do at least one puzzle every day with Jake and one puzzle every day with Viva. Sometimes they want to do more than one. I think they are advancing in their skills. Some days we do 48 piece puzzles together. I still have to coach them, but they are getting better. Viva says she's ready for a 100 piece puzzle, but I'm not sure I'm ready to take on that project with her. I think we'll stick with 48 piecers.

At this point you may be wondering why I train up little puzzle meisters. What is the big deal? You can't earn a college scholarship by working jigsaw puzzles.

Au contraire! Jigsaw puzzles build your brain. They develop your abilities to reason, analyze, sequence, and deduce. These skills help you think logically and solve problems. Jigsaw puzzles improve hand-eye co-ordination and help develop a good working sense of spatial arrangements.

Furthermore jigsaw puzzles exercise both the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The left-brain thinks logically and follows sequence while the right brain is creative, intuitive and emotional. When you put together a jigsaw puzzle, you engage both sides. Awesome! For some people puzzling is a form of meditation. I could list even more benefits of jigsaw puzzling, but this is supposed to be a blog about the children, so I'd best get back on that topic.

My point is that it takes a lot of time and work to help children learn to do jigsaw puzzles, but it's time well spent. It's fun. It's highly educational. And if you work hard, you'll have a full-fledged jigsaw partner is just a few short years.

Jake's Ipad Art

Here's the picture Jake sent Bentley, after Bentley sent us some art while he was on vacation!

The Wizard and his Potion

Here is Bentley's wizard, on his broom, flying over the big bowl of potion he created.

Someone has been watching Fantasia lately with their Daddy this past week.... :-)

He loves his colored pencil sketching, and they have great detail!

Dogs! And More Dogs!

February 25-27 was the annual World Championship Sled Dog Race. It's a big event in sprint dog racing. Teams of 12-20+ dogs race 25 miles daily for three days. On Friday I asked Jake and Viva if they'd like to go see the dogs running. They were quite excited. Then Viva threw up, so she had to stay home. She was not happy, but what could I do?!

Jake tried backing out; he's like that. Leaving the house is not always easy for him. He often balks. I ignored his change of vote and took him anyway. He quickly got over his negativity, although he thought the trip downtown was a little long. "When are we going get there?!"

The weather was fairly warm for winter--34 degrees--so I didn't dress him as well as I should have. I didn't put on his snow pants or boots and I grabbed two right hand mittens.


While 34 is certainly warmer than 0, it's not all that warm if you're standing outside for thirty minutes. Fortunately the location we viewed the races from was a local church and we were allowed to go in and warm up. Mark joined us downtown.

Jake thoroughly enjoyed watching the dogs. The dogs were beautiful--if you ignored their very long tongues hanging out of their mouths and the excessive drool produced by running for 20+ miles. We watched the dogs on their way out of town and on their return back in.



On Saturday we again asked the twins if they wanted to go see the dogs on day two of the races, and again they said yes. This time Viva was able to go. The temperatures had dropped down to 20 degrees, so I bundled the kids up in their snow pants and snow boots and stuffed them into their car seats. Instead of going downtown, we headed over to another good location to view the dogs.

Because it was so cold out, we were only able to watch for a half hour before I had to put the twins in the truck to warm them up. They watched a few more teams race by and then we took them home.


This past weekend was another major dog sledding event--the ceremonial start of the Iditarod. These teams of dogs are a different class than last weekend's teams. They are champion long distance racers--they will run for over 1000 miles in just 10 days. Incredible!

Bentley missed last weekend's races because he was in Las Vegas with his dad, so he was eager to attend this weekend's event. I'm not sure why the children enjoy seeing the dogs race so much. The teams just zoom by and it's over.

Well, zoom is a good term for last weekend's racers; the Iditarod teams were not zooming anywhere. As I mentioned, it's the ceremonial start of the race. No times are recorded. Saturday's event was 100% public relations, so the dogs take it easy and the mushers greet the crowds, sometimes handing out souvenir dog booties. Bentley scored one.


I did not attend this event. Mark went over to get more photos of sled dogs and a short while after that Matt and Kara took the trio so he took a few photos of them, too. I asked him to put together a short slide show because it was impossible to choose just a few shots. (The slide show really is short!)

When I asked how the adventure went, I heard that Bentley had a grand time, Viva had a good time (rolling in the snow?!), and Jake wasn't feeling well. As for Matt and Kara--you'd have to ask them.

=

You can follow the Iditarod race at: http://www.iditarod.com/ I really enjoy following the race every March. My favorite musher is Martin Buser, but really anyone willing to take on a 1000 miles of cold trail deserves to win.

Jake: The Good & The Bad

There was a little girl who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
When she was good, she was very, very good,
And when she was bad she was horrid.

Are you familiar with this nursery rhyme? Other than girl and curl, this rhyme perfectly describes our little Jakie. When he is good, he is very, very good. He is super sweet and adorable. But when he is bad, he is horrid. He hits. He bites. He tells you he doesn't like you. He screams. He chases you to attack you. He's really rather amusing, but in a "Oh my gosh...who is that child?!" kind of way.

He switches from good to bad without much provocation--a missed nap, a thwarted request, it doesn't always take much to turn the switch. Yes, Jake is the best of children and the not best of children. (I won't say worst because I can imagine a lot worse than he is!)

Viva: The Sweet & The Sour

Viva is our little sweetheart princess. She not only looks like a princess, but she acts like a princess, she dresses like a princess, and she likes to have her own way like a princess. If your way and her way are in agreement, life is easy. If not, she'll stick to her plan unless forced to abandon it. She is still little enough that we can force her to do much of what we want her to do, but I suspect we will have some difficult years ahead of us if we try to keep a tight rein on Viva.

I think it's a fair assessment to describe her as sweet and sour. Sweet when she's in agreement with you; sour when not in agreement. You should see some of the faces that girl produces when she's not in agreement. Preschoolers are vastly amusing. (The same behavior in teenagers would be vastly annoying...why is that?)

Stir Crazy

It's been a long, cold winter. We are all starting to crave MORE--more sunshine (which we are starting to get), more outdoor time (not yet!), and more space. It hasn't helped that the children have been sick the past couple of weeks. Jake in particular is easily upset and Bentley is extra ornery--this is not a great combination.

So what do we do to relieve the crazies? Buy furniture! Okay, that's not a serious answer, although we have in the past two weeks purchased new furniture for three different rooms in the house. Well, if you count a double oven as furniture, make that four different rooms in the house. Cabin fever is a dangerous thing.

How do the children handle their winter confinement? They race around the house chasing each other. They jump on the new couches. (Some parents don't allow jumping on the furniture, but the couches are huge and the children are little; they can't possibly damage them.)


They compose music. They play indoor golf. Today they combined music and sports. Viva told her brothers to grab two hand bells each, so the trio could play a hand bell chorus. That's not so odd, but the boys continued to play soccer while playing hand bells. I'm not sure I could play soccer and hand bells at the same time. They did a fair job of both.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

February's Gone?!

That is so rotten. Where did February go? Why didn't I write more blog posts? The children continue to do amazing, funny things every day. Why don't we share more of their adventures on the blog? I don't know why because I like writing about the grandchildren. They are so awesome. They make every day a good day. Granted, some days are long, exhausting days, but they are still good days.

When I sit down and try to recapture some of the funny moments, I can't. A lot of the humor is in the exact wording the kidlets use, and I can't remember word-for-word what they said. If I were a more dedicated blogger, I'd carry around a tape recorder, but I'm not. I live in the moment, as it unfolds; I live it, and I let it go.

Can I recall anything?!

The other day Bentley taught Viva how to play a new dragon tile game. It's not an easy game, but she was a good sport and played with him for quite a while. He was a good sport and showed her where to play her tiles. The score was 20+ for Bentley and 6 for Viva. I asked him how come her score was so low and he said she just got lousy tiles. He played the best he could for her given her tiles. Really?! A 6 is a very low score for the dragon tile game. The low score didn't bother Viva. She never cares if she wins or loses a game.

Here's Viva fending off her brothers during her iPad time.


If she's not careful they take over her time by showing her how to play this game or that game. Sometimes she lets them hijack her iPad time, other days she's not so mellow. She looks pretty mellow in the above photo.

I'll try harder this month to remember funny moments long enough to blog them

Sick Vive Face

This is Viva's sick face.  She wore it for three days straight this week!  She laid around on the couch, on the bed, back on the couch, back on the bed... when you talked to her she would just stare blankly back without even the energy to respond.    We are so glad she's feeling better now!

P.S. - check out her eyes up close!  Mostly green with "darts" of brown.  Love them!

Jake the Artist

Jake has found an activity he is passionate about lately!  He spends significant amounts of time with crayons and paper.  He will happily spend a good hour on a creation- first he goes crazy on one side, then he flips the paper over and does an awesome job with the other side too.  His drawings have become much more intricate this past month, he has been watching his older brother and is now developing his own take on Bentley's intricate line drawings!  Check it out:

I like his use of colors, how he fills in some of the little shapes, AND his gorgeous letters.  Check out the top of the page - he has M, A, I, P, K...  he has some Es, Ls, 8s, and 6s on the paper too.  And he can point to them and tell you which letters/numbers they are, they were very deliberate.  This impresses me because I haven't worked with him on letters at all!  And, to top it off?  He holds his crayons very nicely, exactly as you ought to hold a pencil.  What a kid!

Snow, Fluffy Snow!

When it snows the boys always start in right away "can we go out and shovel"!?

They love a chance to shovel. It must be part of that whole work isn't work unless someone tells you it is concept. I'm glad they like the snow and shoveling, since both are a rather to be expected part of Alaskan winters.

Here they are enjoying a snow pile after getting their work in.

Where is Viva, you ask?! She does go out with them. Sometimes!

Bentley and Blocks

Bentley has been spending more time building lately.  Building intricate drawings.  Building with legos.  Building 300 piece puzzles.  Building with blocks!  I like how symmetrical his gorgeous building is here!  And he looks pleased with it too.  :-)

Viva, Before Sick

Isn't she adorable?

Genevieve is starting to look a little older to me.  Must be the the fact she's closer to 4 than 3?!  Lately I've been thinking maybe she looks like me!  The hair color, the eye color, the skin color... it's something, right?!  We're still not completely certain who exactly it is she does look like... I guess herself!

Poor Viva has been sick the last two days.  She rarely gets sick - when her brothers get sick she's the one that manages to slip under the sick bug radar every time.  But this time she found a bug just for her - she's had a high fever the past two days and just lays around on beds, on the couch, back in bed... looking listless.  Poor kid!  I hope she is back to her perky self very soon!

Bentley's Ipad Art (from Vegas!)

Bentley & I have been exchanging art via the Ipad while he's on vacation.  Sweet, right?!  :-)  Okay... to be fair, Matt sent a picture too.  And I convinced Jake to send one to Bentley!  But what I have here to showcase here are the lovely pictures that Bentley sent me this morning!

A rocket:

A rainbow with a whale:

A rainbow with a lizard and a frog:

His drawings are looking quite realistic, I think!

Belated Valentine's Art

We had a good Valentine's Day season around here! We had our beautiful (and so very tasteful!) Valentine's Day tree out. One of the kids (wish I could remember which one) asked me if we cut it down outside. I had to ask if they've ever seen light pink trees outside... :-)

The kids did some clay heart ornaments, some beaded hearts, and some collage hearts. My workers were dedicated!

Patrick & Cassidy had a Valentine's Day party, and we made lovely hand print heart canvases. All except for Viva, that is. She told me she didn't want to get her hands dirty. Hmmmmm (that was odd of her!).  She decorated hers with all stickers!

The Adventurer & Daddy Head to Vegas

Bentley and Matt are heading off on a grand adventure together tonight, they are going to check out the sights and a show in Las Vegas!  They get to stay at Grandpa Tim's place down there, which is nice.

Bentley is VERY excited.  Matt has been in Barrow this past week and Bentley has been chomping at the bit to pack for the past... month?!  I finally told him we could get started earlier this week.  He's had a list in his head, and was not willing to rest until everything was packed and in its place.  He has a new Star Wars backpack, which he wanted to pack with 40 lbs in weight.  We had to help him shift some of those treasures to Daddy's carry on.

Earlier this week Bentley was wearing a lovely brown fleece sweatshirt he's only worn once or twice.  This despite the fact that he picked it out at the store and Grandma purchased it just for him!  He came out of his room and said "Look, Grandma!  I'm wearing the shirt you bought me.  I am wearing four shirts I don't like this week so that all of the ones I do like are clean for me to pack".

Sweet, eh?  He's quite the thinker/planner.

Bentley tells me he doesn't love planes (the rides are too long!), but he is looking forward to the time with Daddy once they get there.  He told Matt that he's not allowed to do any work the entire time they are there (good luck with that one, little guy!).  He wants to go see shark reef and go see the acrobatic show "where the people stack up on each other"!.  I asked him if there is anything else he wants to do, and he said "of course, but I don't know what yet because I don't know what there is to do".

I'm sure they'll have a great time.  We'll miss him, but look forward to all the pictures he tells us he's going to take!

Valentine's Day!

The boys won't wear pink frilly dresses for me (which is okay!), which means Viva is the star of the day.  :-)  Here she is modeling one of her new spring dresses.  Just because it's cold out doesn't mean we can't pretend spring is on the way, right?!

Matt & I went to the symphony and dinner for an early Valentine's date since he is in Barrow this week.  Apparently the kids questioned Grandma as to why we were out on a date since we're already married!  Silly kids.

On Saturday the boys took their Dad shopping - Bentley had told me earlier in the week that he and Jake had several ideas on what they wanted to get me for Valentine's Day, and they wanted to shop with Matt.  I'm not sure what got them talking about gifts as it isn't something I've brought up, but I can't complain.  They came into my room at 9 am on the dot to give me gift #1: a lovely drawing, which I will scan and write up the story for soon!

Today we're taking Grandma along and heading out to look at big kid beds, then we're off to McDonald's playland where Grandma is treating them to lunch and play time.  I tried to convince them they don't want to go, but it was to no avail.  They say it is SO FUN there.  :-)

Coming soon?  The lovely required pink and red artwork from the year!

Jake's Song: I Got a Kitty

My Five Year Old!

Bentley is great fun, and a delightful 5 year old:

He is logical.
He is loud!
He is good at being quiet too.
He can be sweet.
He pays attention to detail..
He has focus.
He likes to reason things out.
He likes things to be fair.
He has a good memory.
He is a great older brother.
He is easy going (some times!).
He is loving.
He adores his cat.

He is a fun conversational companion.

He is persuasive.

He likes to bargain!

He in independent.

****

Bentley at 5 is a better eater than Bentley at 4!  It is still more often than not that he won't even try a new food, but I think the list of foods he eats now is definitely longer (and of a more rounded variety!) than a year ago. 

He definitely has a great vocabulary that has come a long way since the days where I could count (and worry) about the lack of speaking he chose to do!

He is great with numbers.  He writes them and recites them and can add them and is working on subtraction.  He can write his name and some other letters, but isn't too interested in reading yet.  That's okay with me though - he knows all his letters and the sounds most of them make, when he is interested then we'll work on putting them all together!

He loves to draw and paint and do activity books and craft projects.  He creates some very detailed pictures for us, and they all have stories to go with them!

He is a fast runner (which he constantly demonstrates), and lately has been working on his indoor hurdle skills.  Perhaps gymnastics are in his future?

He loves to advise (a kind word?!) his brother and sister and help keep them out of trouble.  He can be a great helper, and when he starts a project he always sticks with it until the end.  He has a great attention span and dedication.  I love that about him!

We know we're biased, but even so, we know he's perfectly brilliant and perfect for us.  We love you, Bentley!

Jackson Goes to Dinner

(a guest post from Daddy):

Last night, I had the opportunity to take Jackson to dinner. We made the plan on Sunday that we would go out, but when I got home, tt almost didn't happen!

It took considerable effort to get him out the door. Jackson has a lot of fears. At first, he was afraid that it would be too dark for me to see the road and we would crash. Then he was afraid that no one else would be able to eat dinner and they would be hungry. Next up, that mommy would miss him. That no one would play with Bentley. That Grandma would miss him. That he'd never be able to go to bed. That we'd never come home. Eventually it just devolved into a crying, screaming, hysterical child... who got sent to his room.

After beating down his door, he decided that if Daddy played with everyone for at least 15 minutes, then it would be ok.

That was resolvable!

One last stop measure he threw in was, "we just went on an adventure! We threw rocks at the water!" I had to remind him the last time we did that was in October. He couldn't beat that, so we were on our way. To where? Well, every minute on the road Jake gave a new suggestion of a place he wanted to eat at. Not helpful. Kara had suggested Lonestar - the kid is a fan of steak, and it was Tuesday so kids eat free - so I headed in that general direction. About halfway there, Jake was a much calmer child, simply watching out his window for the aliens that he was sure were going to abduct us. ("Daddy, do you see any blue lights coming to get us yet?!")

Once at the restaurant, he was all smiles for the hostess and the waitress! Never ending peanuts, bread, crayons, and a word-search (which I didn't know he could do) were the perfect combo to making this Jake very excited to be there.

Somehow, he even knew exactly what to order: Steak and fries and a milkshake! And when the food appeared, repeatedly all I heard was, "Cut my steak." "More steak, please!" "I like these fries!" "This was a good idea." "Here Dad, you can have a little of my milkshake." It was all about the food.

He almost ate it all, except for a few bites that he wanted to make sure that he could share with Bentley and Viva, "in case they like it and want to come here too".

Our adventure ended happily. As we left the restaurant, Jake assured me with "that restaurant was really cool. Didn't you think so, Dad? I'm glad we went to this restaurant."

A grand adventure for sure!