<p>astrophysics mom,
That reminds me of when my boys were little. They used to make swords and machine guns out of their tinker toys and then go outside and play <em>war</em>. Here I was imagining them building elaborate ferris wheels and such, and they build Uzi’s.</p>
<p>The early ability to solve complex jigsaw puzzles is, I believe, a sign of mathematical giftedness</p>
<p>I think studies have shown that activities that involve any kind of intellectual stimulation - including things like jigsaw/crossword puzzles, board games, reading, will slow down the onset of Alzheimers…so there’s another reason to keep these puzzles around even after our kids have grown up!</p>
<p>I read somewhere that Bill Gates loves to do puzzles.
Learning how to dance is another way to wart off Azheimer disease, basically learning anything new, because it helps develop new synapses.</p>
<p>I hate puzzles, with parents and siblings who thought they were cool, so I wouldn’t be surprised to find that my kids didn’t recognize your analogy, since we didn’t have any around the house.</p>
<p>However, your device that makes multiple sounds is this:
<a href=“http://www.clickertraining.com/clickerplus[/url]”>http://www.clickertraining.com/clickerplus</a>
Dog trainers use a clicker to make a click sound that lets the dog know he has done something right. Karen Pryor (who developed the idea) first used clicker training to train killer whales. The “clicker+” that I just gave the link to provides multiple sounds. </p>
<p>(To digress into the theory behind clicker training, the click lets the dog (or any animal with a brain stem) know that at that moment they are right. Then later a reward follows. In training a killer whale, for example, the trainer can click just as the whale splashes… then reward later, at the side of the training pool. In training a dog, as another example, you could click at the moment the dog touches the ball you are trying to persuade it to retrieve. Karen Pryor wrote a wonderful book called “Don’t Shoot the DOg” that explains all this in great detail.</p>
<p>dmd, ???clicker training for music students!<br>
I was sort of joking around, because kids are so responsive to video games nowadays. The little “you’re dead” ditty that Mario games use- I thought it would be funny to play that when the student misses the boat. Goodness, I am literally sitting at my computer right now laughing at the though of “clicking” when my student misses a note!
ROFLOL</p>
<p>You’re showing your age. But gee, now I have to add jigsaw puzzle to “Yes, darling ( to my daughter), I am pre mall, pre tampon and pre panty hose. And when I was in HS girls did not play on a basketball team.”
And now, sadly, jigsaw puzzles will be a part of the litany!</p>
<p>I think Cruella’s dad had a brilliant idea. Maybe it’s time for me to start doing puzzles so I can still be up when my daughter gets home. And how nice to have a normal conversation with your kid!</p>
<p>Hmmm, I would have expected all kids to have done puzzles. Mine certainly did. They also did at school and in various playgroups. I recall one birthday when for their invitations, I bought blank puzzles and they created the invitations on them and broke the puzzle into pieces and sent them out.</p>
<p>I am proud to say my two teenage D’s can weave potholders and have put together 1000 piece puzzles. And they found both activities “fun.” I still use the potholders, and if we had loops I’d ask for more!</p>
<p>Oh, doubleplay, I meant you should click when they were doing WELL! You want what is called a “no-reward marker” when they mess up. In my case, that would be a quiet “oops.” Sorry.</p>