One of the birthday presents that Quincy plays with the most is his puzzle of the United States of America. His normal “kiddie” puzzles are 24 pieces and do not present a challenge any longer. Aunt Buff must have realized how easy puzzles have gotten for him since she is the one who got this 85 piecer for Quincy to work on.
We have longed marveled at Quincy’s ability to memorize books and other things, but we noticed that he has taken a different approach to this puzzle. He has memorized part of it, but he also has started to learn the names of states and where they go in relation to the others. He really excels at the western U.S. mainly because the states are larger, but he can put the entire puzzle (the states part) together without any help from us.
I thought of taking a video of him doing the puzzle, but it would have been a huge file and taken forever for him to build the states. So, I took a few pictures while he was working on it instead. As you can see from the photos, he starts in the southwest and then heads north and then heads to the southeast. It is quite a trip to hear a 3 year old say, “That doesn’t go there (holding Kentucky), I need Tennessee.” – and he’s right.