Puzzle Master 2020

Quarantine has been a good time for people to sharpen their mental skills.

Whether that be with writing, creating art, making music, reading, or in my son's case, putting together some puzzles.

For Christmas, we bought AJ some puzzles. Ranging anywhere from 24 pieces to 100 pieces. But he's only three years old, so we didn't even bother breaking them out of the closet.

For one, we just honestly forgot about them, but also because I thought they may have been a little bit too advanced for him.

He saw them in the closet and asked if he could play with them. So I gave him a 24 piece puzzle. It's got huge pieces, the puzzle itself becomes like the size of a table placemat.

I figured that would be a good starting point for him. I helped him put it together. But I realized that he was pretty much doing it without my help for the most part.

So then my wife broke out some other puzzles with 24 pieces, but they were a lot smaller. So with the tiny pieces I again assumed he'd need help. I mean, he's three.

He blew threw it again in like 5-10 minutes. As we sat there dumbfounded that his little brain was working at an incredible speed, we looked at each other in disbelief.

Could he really be ready for a 48 piece puzzle?! There's no way.

We were wrong once again. That boy demolished a 48 piece puzzle.

And then a 60 piece puzzle.

​And then a 100 piece puzzle! To be fair, he needed help on that one. But he still did it!

So now we're on to making 3D models out of magnetic shapes. I continue to be blown away by watching his little brain go to work.

I remember being a pretty smart kid, but I don't ever remember my brain working like that.

This time at home has been a challenge at time with two very young children. But I know in their mind, they're happy as fuck to see us every single day.

So the least I can do is hype him up when he's putting his puzzles together. With no sports on, I'm just gonna start commentating when he's putting them together.

​Gonna go something like this...

Welcome back to Puzzle Master 2020 (5 and under division)
We have AJ up next, and he is going to attempt to do a 60-piece puzzle in under twenty minutes.
He's chosen the Paw Patrol puzzle, an interesting choice as last week we saw little Timmy do this same one in 18 minutes.

Puzzle Master ready? Timer ready?
On your mark. Get set. GO!

And right out the gate, AJ has a great opening of the box!
He dumps all of the pieces on the table and begins flipping them all face-up.
He is starting off by putting all of the characters pieces together first.
And interesting strategy! You typically see people putting the edges together first, but we can see AJ would rather build from the inside out.

We're ten minutes in and AJ has all the characters together, but now he must put the background together.
This is a difficult task as many of the clouds look very similar.
He's got to pick up the pace if he wants to be the new Puzzle Master (5 and under division)

We're now at 16 minutes! The pressure is mounting!
He's got 6 pieces left. Can he do it?!
He's trying to fit a piece in the wrong spot!
He calls to his coach for assistance! Team AJ calls timeout!

"Daddy, is this the right spot?"
"Look at this part right here AJ. See how it has a flat side? The flat side has to go with the flat side. Got it?"
"Ok. Flat sides stay together. Ok, Daddy."

And we're back. Can AJ do it? We will find out in this final stretch.
Right out of the timeout AJ places two edge pieces!
They must have talked about that in the timeout.
Four pieces remain, they're all the same color. Now it's all about seeing which pieces fit.
Time is running out!

Two pieces left and just 30 seconds!
OH MY GOD HE PLACED A PIECE! FINAL PIECE TO GO!
HE PICKS UP THE FINAL PIECE!
HE ATTEMPTS TO PLACE IT, OH NO THAT'S THE WRONG WAY AJ!
HE'S TURNING IT... TURNS IT AGAIN... FINAL TURN...
AND ITS COMPLETE!
BANG! BANG!

A new record! AJ has completed the 60-piece Paw Patrol puzzle in 17 minutes and 54 seconds!
The new Puzzle Master 2020 (5 and under division) is AJ!
AJ! You are now the new Puzzle Master of 2020! How do you feel?

"Can I have my Goldfish now?"