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When my son, "the Cheese Eater," was only 3 years old, he was given a wooden jigsaw puzzle of the United States that most adults wouldn't even be able to put together.
Having found this puzzle at the dollar store, my mother picked it up as a small, fun surprise for the kids. Just like with the boxes of Raisinettes and Elmo stickers she'd brought in the past, she was rewarded with an enthusiastic smile of appreciation from her eldest grandson.
I, however, wasn't so excited. Sure, I had always been big on educational toys; I'd bought books, wooden blocks, paints, and coloring books without a second thought. But I was always careful only to buy toys that were age-appropriate.
The expensive, interactive learning toys he'd received as gifts were collecting dust, and I knew that this new puzzle would probably suffer the same fate. They were all great toys, but too much of an educational challenge for our son. This wasn't a cute, 10-piece jigsaw with a picture of something he was familiar with, like a dog or a fire truck; this was the whole United States -- with 50 pieces!
The Cheese Eater thought it was cool nonetheless. Tipping it over, all 50 states came crashing down onto the kitchen floor into one big pile of united chaos.
"Mommy, you do it," my son informed me.
I looked up at my mother with a thankless smile, knowing that I would be spending most of the evening brushing up on my U.S. geography.
For several nights, the United States puzzle -- which the Cheese Eater had renamed the "Oklahoma Puzzle" because of where we lived at the time -- sat untouched. I had meant to hide it in a closet to keep it safe until he was old enough to actually do the puzzle all by himself, but, like so many other things, I never got around to it.
So there it sat on the coffee table, waiting patiently for my child to grow up.
Then, one night, the Cheese Eater was suddenly interested again. Studying the pieces, my 3-year-old picked one up and walked it over to me.
"Is this Tennessee?"
My husband and I stared in disbelief.
Sure enough, it was. We nodded yes, and the Cheese Eater simply smiled as he walked back over to the coffee table with a look of satisfaction on his face. This time when he tipped the puzzle over, he didn't ask for my help. That night, he sat on a little stool and put that whole puzzle together all by himself.
The Oklahoma Puzzle soon turned into one of his favorite toys. He became a puzzle prodigy, putting the entire thing together upside down and in reverse. He shocked us daily, pointing out the window and saying things like, "Hey! That house looks like Idaho!" or "My cracker looks like Texas!" For us, his parents, his new talents turned into a form of entertainment whenever any of our friends stopped by. We'd dump the puzzle out and smile, saying, "Look at what our kid can do!"
I'm so grateful now that I never got around to putting away my mother's gift. Sitting there that night, watching the Cheese Eater put the last state back into the union, we realized that our son was a lot smarter than we had been giving him credit for.
We haven't underestimated him since.
Author Stephenie B. Freeman is also CallMeMama on Family.com. Go to CallMeMama's blog, Hugs & Kisses, to read more about this Disney Family Blogger's two young boys as they pass through the toddler years and on into kindergarten.
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