I like jigsaw puzzles. The only thing that prevents me from always having a puzzle in progress is my failure to convince Pomegranate to let me be a puzzle tester. Even with large gaps of time between puzzles, they are a familiar enough sight that visitors comment when there ISN’T a puzzle on the table. My family patiently tolerates the 1000s of tiny pieces on our kitchen table that I fidget with every time I attempt to walk past the table. I appease my table hogging guilt by doing ‘art themed‘ puzzles. In my vivid imagination, someday the children will see something in a museum that will catch their attention. They won’t remember the puzzle, but their brains will be at full attention and they will remember the actual work of art.

In actuality, my theory is about as effective as the idea that the children will learn the periodic table because it’s what they see every time they walk in the bathroom or that they will learn the planets because of the solar system ceiling in Professor Teen’s room.

We do it anyway.