Thinking Outside the Box - Literally

I have made two variations of wooden puzzles for over forty years. We have the large one in our living room. When our grandkids visit, at some point during their stay they gravitate to the puzzle. Because it’s a geometric puzzle with only three shapes it can be assembled many different ways both symmetrically and asymmetrically. I have arranged the small puzzles in different patterns to illustrate.

One day I was telling one of my granddaughters that there were 15 or 18 different patterns you could make with the large puzzle. She said, grandpa, there are an infinite number of patterns you can make. I told her there were a lot but not an infinite number. She set about making a pattern similar to the one in the bottom row. I told her that all of the pieces were not in the box, She asked if there was a law that all of the pieces had to be in the box. Of course there’s no law!

The point is we are much more creative when we ignore the right way to do things and instead consider all of the possibilities. Over the years I’ve watched scores of kids and adults play with these puzzles. By a certain age, many of them insist that all of the pieces need to fit in the box. The rest of them have creative potential.