Puzzle By the Number

Just over a year ago, I shared about purchasing a puzzle at a second hand store and upon opening it, we found that they had numbered the puzzle on the back to make it easier to do. Here is a link to that post.
 
I shared that we had gone through all the puzzles we had in the house and got rid of the one's that were missing pieces and I have purchased several new puzzles as we have been enjoying doing them together in the evenings trying to enjoy family time before Princess Four leaves for college in a week or so. 

I purchased this old puzzle of the Eiffel Tower for us to do. I like the older puzzles as you can see. I opened it to find that it had been numbered. I wanted to do the puzzle like regular but Princess Five complained about it as every piece is almost exactly like the next. There was little variation in this older puzzle so she got discouraged quickly and with that, I told her I would do the puzzle by the numbers so she would join us in doing it. 


Twice, we got the outside edge done only to have it fall off and break apart. One problem with this puzzle having the shapes all the same is the pieces didn't lock well and fell apart easily. I was surprised one day to come home and find that Princess Four had done most of the puzzle. I got the outside and started sorting the inside pieces but I don't like doing it that way as it was boring to me. 


I gave up and Princess Four finishing it in a day or two. The problem then was how to flip it so we could enjoy looking at the picture. 

I tried rolling it in the felt carrier but to unroll it, the pieces fell out as you had to unroll it upside down and into itself which didn't work. 

We got a large sketch book and put it on top but the felt was under it and to try and flip it, we lost most of the outside pieces. 


Princess Four started putting it back together but since we are packing her for college, we both gave up and put it back into the box. It did have all it's pieces but I really didn't enjoy doing it by the number and probably wouldn't do that again if we got another that way. 

I guess we all enjoy doing things differently. I enjoy visual so for me, the picture is more fun! How do you like to do your puzzles?