Montessori: puzzles for tantrums

I discovered a cool trick to help cut down on Lily's screaming fits of frustration. Puzzles. I get really hard ones that frustrate the hell out of her. She throws huge fits. She screams and yells. She throws the puzzle pieces. One time she tried to hide the pieces between the cushions on the couch. I am so mean. Poor girl is just trying to escape the evil puzzles.

After the fits, she will sit down and figure it out. I do the puzzle with her a few times. This is where all the screaming and throwing things occurs. Then, I leave her to her puzzles and she figures it out. See she is learning to deal with frustration in a controlled environment.

One time I got her this 60 piece puzzle, it had those pieces that don't lock together, so every time you put a new piece in the correct spot, you knock about five pieces out of place. She was so mad. This puzzle took about a month for her to figure out and be able to do on her own. Now she can do it in her sleep. Whenever a piece gets knocked out of place she says, can we fix it? Yes, we can. Thanks to, Bob the Builder. (Non-Montessori type child soother).

Saturday I bought her a 24 piece little Sesame Street jigsaw puzzle, this one locks together, anyways, she had it figured out by Saturday afternoon. This morning before she even ate her breakfast she put together her puzzle.

My sincerest hope is that she some how is able to put it together, and translate her ability to deal with puzzle frustration into an ability to deal with other types of frustration. When beatings and time out aren't working -try puzzles? If not at least her little brain is growing. That may not be such a good thing, how much longer before she is outsmarting me with her new found puzzle intelligence?