Jigsaw genius at 2 - anyone else had this?

[Fionn]

I'm interested in your experiences on this: my 2 1/2 year old has been doing his brother's 60 piece age 4+ Monsters Inc jigsaw on his own with great ease for the past 3 months or so and this week did an age 6+ 80 piece pirate jigsaw on his own with me just putting pieces in the right area for him to fit in. His dad is a mathematician so I suppose it's an heriditary thing, he has a lot of patience for it. Does this mean he'll probably be good at maths?

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Well done, My ds aged 3.2 can not even do a 12 piece jigsaw, saying that I always hated jigsaws and I do not have a patience, maybe thats inherited. Saying that he did have a 5 word vocab when he was 8 months old.

Fionn, my daughter was also brilliant with jigsaws and building blocks at a young age. She was less than 2yo when she built an unfilled square of blocks i.e. like the outer wall of a house which I had never seen a child of that age do.

FWIW in terms of will your son be good at maths, DD is probably top of her class for maths (she was given some Y2 work even at the beginning of Y1) and she and a boy from her class are the first in their class to move away from the usual reading scheme onto 'free readers' i.e. they can choose any book they want from the library at school. Which sounds horribly boastful but it's not meant to.

We also, by virtue of travelling a lot when she was younger, spent time playing card games - Go Fish, pairs, even a version of poker - which I believe helped build up her maths skills although at the time it was purely a way of making trips to Oz and NZ pass more quickly!

robinw. my mother said the same about me! I'm stilll addicted to jigsaws, we do one every christmas, sad I know!

Both my DS and DD especially are brilliant at maths, we taught them to play poker, canasta, pontoon etc when very small. They have been playing backgammon and Mahjong since they were about eight

Alibubbles - we generally do a jigsaw at Christmas too. I'm glad we're not the only ones to teach cards to our children. We have joked in the past about social services turning up, especially when DD went into school and asked if they could play Newmarket. Her teacher did set aside time for some of them to have a game. Gambling in the classroom - how shocking

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Am I being really thick - where's the Maths link? My 2ds's have always been brill at jigsaws, esp. ds2 - they are bright in most 'academic' areas, but I've always thought the jigsaw skills apply more to shape recognition, and therefore on to learning letters and reading, rather than Maths? Both boys knew all the letter sounds by 2.5, started recognising words soon after, and began reading early. But then they could also count accurately very early too, and are great at Maths.

Hopeless co-ordination though - can't have everything, can we?

PS Fionn - how did you get on with your proofreading course? Did you finish it? Have you been able to find work?

I guess shape and patterns are an early introduction to maths. A lot of maths is about patterns isn't it? (says she who is completely hopeless at maths...)

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Fionn, my DS, now 3.5, also has always been very good at jigsaws; he could do a 40pc one labelled 4-7-yr-old at age 2.5 as I recall. We also have a 96-pc one which he's had since last summer and really loves (he does need some help with that but still...) - in contrast to some of his peers who still struggle with (or simply are not interested in!) 12-20pc ones. Not sure if it means anything special (he is of course less far forward in other areas) but that's interesting what RobinW says. He loves dominoes and can play with grown-up number ones perfectly well. Must try card games as well. I loved doing jigsaws too my mum says. Not sure if it's brought me any major long-term benefits but I have always been good with figures and hey! it's a great activity for them - quiet, cheap and absorbing. Not messy either!

I also have a jigsaw king - he is 2years and 2 months and can just about do 24 piece jigsaws if he is familiar with them. Unfortunately this seems to be at the detriment of any other toys - he wold do puzzles all day every day if he could. Not sure if I should worry about this or not. I would prefer if he played with his cars and things as well, although he does join in imaginitive play with his sister.
I'm good a maths though, and also like a good jigsaw!

Maybe it's a boy thing as well though - ds and his boy friends tend to order things - put animals in lines, do puzzles etc while the girls tend to do more communicative things (like bossing the little ones, playing mummys and daddys etc)

Needless to say ds is pretty useless at other things - speech slow and he still cannot run or jump!

Fionn , MiL informs my that DH could do jigsaws at 2. He's more intelligent than me but worse than me at maths.

Thanks for everyone's comments, very interesting. I hadn't made the link with cards, I'll have to get those out and buy dominoes too. It was only a year ago when we could only do jigsaws with ds1 when ds2 was asleep as he'd mess them up, now he's overtaken his big brother! Ds2 has his dad's patience though rather than mine, just as well. Talking of cards, can many of you play cribbage? My grandad taught me when I was 10 but I've rarely met anyone under 60 who can play it!

KMG yes I got my proofreading certificate last week, Pass with Merit. (I'm trying to resist putting my penn'orth in on the Decline of English Grammar thread!) I'm not in a rush to look for work yet as the children are still very young and at home with me most of the time, but will probably start by advertising locally to see if any businesses are interested in having their brochures/menus/flyers/catalogues etc proofread.

I interviewed the man who writes Teletubbies a few years back and he said the bits where the Teletubbies walk along paths was an early introduction to maths as following patterns is extremely important as a precurser to understanding the abstract nature of maths. I was very, very impressed with the way the programme is put together.

Fionn, I can play cribbage although I rarely play. My grandad taught me.

Aloha, my late MIL was a primary school teacher and she was over from NZ when Teletubbies was first around - there was lots of controversy about it at the time but she was very impressed too and pointed out things like the repitition of the short info piece they have as being ideal for children of that age.

I wanted to revive this one as my (very average but lovely) ds age 27 months is quite good at jigsaws but I've just discovered that once he knows a puzzle he can do them just as quickly blank side up. He can even tell me what going be on the picture before he picks it up. I was staggered. His brain must be taking in so much more information than mine - I couldn't do it.

Does anyone know any more about how their brain works out this kind of thing?

Wow Lois - that is pretty good. I remember someone telling me jigsaw ability (??) is a good indication of lots of spatial skills & intelligence.

Doesn't bode well for me & my 3 yr old. I can barely do his jigsaws and he just throws them around........

Think you have a clever boy there!!

It is a pre-reading skill I think and (IMHO) a good argument for putting reading off as long as poss - they start to see the world differently once they can read, in all sorts of ways.

Lois, have you got a Memory game? Bet he'd be brilliant at that too. Ravensburger do good ones.

My son is also disinterested in jigsaws, Lazyeye. My dad loves them, and is cr*p at maths!

Lois, My Ds1 (4.5yrs)'was' exactly like yours. He could easily do 30+ piece puzzles at 2.5 and would often do other puzzles with the blank side up.
We had about 6 different puzzles all mixed up in one box and he would do each puzzle faster than I could.
I say was as he couldn't care less about them now, although he is still good at them if we sit down and do one but he'd much rather be playing/shouting/running around/fighting with DS2!!!!

TheGrinch - I don't understand your post - probably me. By 'pre-reading skill' do you mean it's something that helps reading, or an ability they lose once they start to read? Either way, I don't understand why it's an argument to put off reading as long as possible.

emmatmg - I understood that jigsaw skills/shape recognition were linked to potential for early literacy. Has your 4.5 yr-old gone on to read early?

Anecdotally, both my boys were exceptional at jigsaws (ds2 50-pce unaided at just 2 yo), and have gone on to read very early and very fluently, and have subsequently been identified by the school as 'gifted and able', particularly for literacy.

roisin, I meant that they "see" the world differently before they can read - ie, yes, an ability they lose afterwards. I don't believe that reading early is necessarily a good thing, as it seems to make them look out for words and stop seeing things - they have the rest of their lives to read in.