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Do ducks like the water?
Does the sun rise in the east?
Do kids love crafting?
The answer to all of these questions is YES!
Here’s a simple craft activity from Show Me How! Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem Through Reading, Crafting and Cooking. It requires only 5 things…I’m sure you have all five in your home already. Your child 
will love making this puzzle and will enjoy putting it together and taking it apart…great pre-reading skills!
MAKE A PUZZLE
You will need: A picture (from an old magazine for example), a piece of heavy weight construction paper approximately the same size as the picture your child has chosen (or one side of a cereal box), a pair of safety scissors, paste or a glue stick and an envelope in which to store the pieces.
1. Let your child choose a picture from an old magazine.
2. Paste the picture onto the construction paper or cardboard.
3. Cut the mounted picture in pieces. Depending on the age of your child, this could be a two or three or more piece puzzle.
4. Help your child put the pieces together to form the picture.
5. Store the pieces in an envelope.
I’ll be doing a similar craft in downtown Colorado Springs on June 11th at the PBS Kids Fun Fest in Acacia Park from 10am to 2pm. There will be all kinds of entertainment and many tables of craft activities for children. If you are local, this is a MUST-GO-TO event…lots of fresh ideas for parents and teachers!
Please stop by tomorrow for What’s In Your Child’s Bookcase for a great picture book suggestion for summer reading. And don’t forget to visit my website to take advantage of the Jump Into Summer Half-off Sale. 
VIVIAN KIRKFIELD - Writer for Children 
This reminds me of a set of Puzzle Cards I purchased one year for Valentine’s Day:
The puzzles were perforated.
I painted an original design and message on each.
I broke them apart and mailed the pieces to my nieces and nephews.
A big hit!
Kids love puzzles . . . and crafts. 🙂
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Thanks Nancy.
It ‘s really amazing how many “toys” we can actually make with our kids for pennies…and they love them all the more because they helped…and we shared our time with them. 🙂
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Awesome task to teach and learn… I used to enjoy doing puzzles as a kid and with mine until life took over… memories. 🙂
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That’s true…I can remember always having a puzzle(one of those 500+ piece ones) going…were they simplier times or just less intrusion from the outside world. 🙂
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I was playing with a puzzle similar to this with one of the kids and I was thinking that it would be so easy to make. I was amazed at how interested my friend Audrey was in this puzzle. She had a few and we spent at least an hour putting them together and taking them apart. All that fun in a 6×4 piece of paper! The simple things are usually the biggest hits with kids.
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The simple things do make the most impact on young children…so why do we go out and spend so much on elaborate toys and gadgets?
It’s definitely a “puzzle” to me. 🙂
As the craft instructions indicate…it’s really so simple..just a picture (which the child could draw) pasted on a piece of cardboard and then cut in several pieces…more pieces for a more complicated puzzle.
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