Mary Cuffy

In the vi­brant heart of Trinidad and To­ba­go, a three-year-old boy's bound­less cu­rios­i­ty has blos­somed in­to an in­spir­ing cre­ation that cel­e­brates our na­tion's spir­it. Meet Pre­ston Ba­choon, whose pas­sion for puz­zles ig­nit­ed a jour­ney of dis­cov­ery and pride, re­mind­ing us all that a child's won­der can light the way for learn­ing and her­itage.

Pre­ston's fas­ci­na­tion with puz­zles be­gan when he re­ceived a 24-piece wood­en puz­zle as part of his school sup­plies. He spent hours en­grossed in solv­ing it, fu­elling his cu­rios­i­ty and de­ter­mi­na­tion. His par­ents, im­pressed by his en­thu­si­asm, pur­chased ad­di­tion­al puz­zles for him, watch­ing as each com­plet­ed piece built not just im­ages but dreams and de­ter­mi­na­tion in their young son.

As Re­pub­lic Day ap­proached, Pre­ston learnt about the na­tion­al flag and his coun­try’s his­to­ry from his teacher. Ex­cit­ed to share his new­found knowl­edge, he re­turned home and asked his par­ents ques­tions about var­i­ous lo­ca­tions in T&T. His in­nate cu­rios­i­ty and de­sire for knowl­edge prompt­ed him to pose nu­mer­ous ques­tions, turn­ing every­day con­ver­sa­tions in­to mag­i­cal ex­plo­rations of home.

In re­sponse to his en­thu­si­asm, his par­ents opt­ed to seek a puz­zle specif­i­cal­ly de­signed to ed­u­cate him about T&T. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, their search proved un­suc­cess­ful, as no suit­able puz­zle could be found. Un­de­terred, they chose to take mat­ters in­to their own hands and cre­at­ed the Trinidad and To­ba­go Puz­zle, a tai­lored ed­u­ca­tion­al tool de­signed to fos­ter Pre­ston’s un­der­stand­ing and ap­pre­ci­a­tion of his coun­try’s rich her­itage.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Puz­zle comes in two edi­tions: a 48-piece ver­sion that show­cas­es the coun­try’s bor­oughs and promi­nent land­marks—such as the Twin Tow­ers, Steel Pan, Car­ni­val Mas­quer­ad­er, Brain Coral, Oil In­dus­try, and Mara­cas Bay—and a 24-piece ver­sion that in­tro­duces chil­dren to the di­verse wildlife of the Re­pub­lic of T&T, in­clud­ing the Scar­let Ibis and Red Howler Mon­key. Each puz­zle is de­signed with in­put from ed­u­ca­tors and fea­tures la­belled ref­er­ence pho­tos to sup­port guid­ed learn­ing, vo­cab­u­lary build­ing, and recog­ni­tion, invit­ing kids to con­nect with the cul­tur­al and nat­ur­al won­ders that make our is­lands so spe­cial.

To­geth­er, these puz­zles serve as pow­er­ful ed­u­ca­tion­al tools, help­ing chil­dren de­vel­op es­sen­tial skills such as prob­lem-solv­ing, crit­i­cal think­ing, hand-eye co­or­di­na­tion, fine mo­tor abil­i­ties, vi­su­al mem­o­ry, and at­ten­tion to de­tail, abil­i­ties that em­pow­er young minds to tack­le life’s puz­zles with con­fi­dence and joy. Whether in class­rooms, home­schools, or fam­i­ly set­tings, they show how play can be a pro­found path to growth, pride, and pos­si­bil­i­ty.

Pre­ston's sto­ry whis­pers a time­less truth: when cu­rios­i­ty leads, it can piece to­geth­er a brighter, more con­nect­ed world for us all.

Mary Cuffy, an ed­u­ca­tor and lo­cal chil­dren’s au­thor, is the cre­ator of the La­dy­bug book se­ries. She be­lieves the best in­vest­ment we can make in chil­dren is in their ear­ly years.

Email: 7mary.cuffy@ya­hoo.com7 • IG: marycuffy • FB: mary cuffy/Lo­la and the Danc­ing La­dy­bug