Creative way to learn critical thinking skills

We purchased Anaconda for our 9-yr-old son as a way to help him focus on learning critical thinking skills, as he loves critters. While he may complain about completing a math assignment on paper, he will sit quietly for a long time and work on these puzzles, figuring out which pieces must go where to complete the snake. I have been adding these types of puzzles to our homeschool curriculum so that we can all have a puzzle to work on during “game time”. My son and I race to complete our puzzles, and my other children are occupied with other puzzles. My younger children enjoy just playing with the Anaconda pieces – putting a snake together without following the diagram. These games are a refreshing change from book work and I am looking forward to continuing this aspect of our schooling.

Okay, I am not as impressed with the 3-D Skeleton puzzle as I thought I would be.  The detail is excellent, but the rib cage was difficult to put together and kept falling apart.  Also, it wouldn’t stay on the stand once we (yes, it took an 11 year old and an adult) got it together.  If I had known how it was, I am not sure I would have purchased this item.

I have to say that I am VERY impressed with the 4-D Human Skin Anatomy Puzzle. I teach nursing as well as medical terminology at the college level. I planned on using this with my children, but I am going to take it in to the college students as well. The detail is absolutely amazing and will give my children and adult students a truly amazing picture of the skin. Definitely an excellent buy!

This turtle maze is appealing in various ways. It is a fun quiet toy for your child to play with, without making a mess or losing pieces. It teaches good manual skills, and mental skills, as well. As they begin, they will just work on the ability to move the balls around, but eventually they will begin matching the colors and bring up the skill level a notch.

Get ready for fun!

This (Hide and Seek Safari) is our family’s first foray into these types of puzzles and I LOVE this one! Question is, who is going to love it more, kids or parents?! My husband and I put the kids to bed and then sat and played with this game for an hour or more! Deceptively easy. The colors are bright and engaging, tiles easy to put in place, my littles (2 & 3) enjoy trying to hide different animals. The older two kids (7 & 5) are just in love with it. A family winner! A bonus is how portable it is – the top piece slides back to reveal a hidden compartment that the booklet and pieces fit in…Amazing! Another great Timber product.

Geopuzzles

Helpful with geography memorization

My 6 and 4 year-olds have both done the Asia and Europe puzzles. The six year old does it in no time at all and the 4 year old takes her time but gets through it as well. They are both in Classical Conversations where they need to memorize 165 points of geography. The puzzles have helped them memorize the geography extremely well. The six year old has it memorized completely while the 4 year old has about half of it. I have a friend who works for the foreign service who will be serving in Turkmenistan next year and my kids actually know where that is!

The Global Animal Puzzle is our first attempt at doing a “grown-up” puzzle together (parents and 8 year old daughter).  DD has already learned quite a bit from doing geography puzzles for children, so I was thrilled to see her eyes light up when she recognized the name of a country and knew which continent it was part of.  It is slow going (mainly because we have to keep stashing it in the sewing room when her younger siblings are up…they are definitely not ready for the Global Animal Puzzle!), but we are loving the time spent together and the learning involved in doing this beautiful, high-quality puzzle together.

Oberlin, OH

The Green Start Giant Floor Puzzle: On The Farm is a great floor puzzle! The pieces are nice and big for your little ones hands. They are big enough to see the details. It is busy enough to use the detail to reason where the pieces go, yet not too busy to feel cluttered. The pieces are thick and sturdy. My kids were proud of their creation and wanted to save it for Daddy to see. The only negative is that the box has a side opening, so the kids can’t just toss the pieces in. I have to make them into 2 stacks, with the pieces going long ways, and them put each stack in to the box.

Homeschool mom

The Global Puzzle

A great tool for our four boys ages 6 – 13

This has been a great tool for our four boys ages 6 – 13. They spent hours working on it and have memorized many countries that were new to them. They have all been asking to get it out again. Some pieces are very small so we had to watch the toddler and baby and also be very careful to pick any pieces that fall so we won’t lose them.

I am so excited to finally get these puzzles! I have been looking at them for a long time, and finally decided to make the plunge and buy the set, and I am so thrilled! As soon as they arrived, I popped open the box and jumped right in on the Africa puzzle. I love that the puzzle pieces are each the shape of the country, and the different colors help it go together quickly. I found myself short a piece, so I called Customer Service, and within two weeks, they had GeoPuzzle mail me the missing country, so now, Africa is complete! This is the way we are using them for learning right now. We are studying the United States, so we pull out the U.S & Canada puzzle, and I help the kids get it going by building the border. Then, they use the box cover to work their way across the country. As they get more familiar with it, they are using the box cover less and less. One nice thing about these puzzles is that my four year old can even do them, with a little help. He loves puzzles and will often work the US puzzle, while I am doing seat work with his 8 year old sister. I love things that work for the whole family!