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Galt Horrible Science Ugly Bugs Jigsaw
by MelissaRuth
The 'Horrible' series of books published by Scholastic have been popular for many years now, with educational material presented to children in a novel and often gruesome way, with the historical titles such as the Terrible Tudors and Rotten Romans probably being some of the best well known. We also have a number of books in the science ... range including 'Ugly Bugs'. My youngest daughter has always had a fascination with bugs of any shape and description and is often found out in the garden with a tub full of grass and a collection of worms, lady birds, snails or whatever she's on the lookout for on that day. When we spotted the Horrible Science 'Ugly Bugs' jigsaw puzzle in a National Trust shop a few years ago it seemed that it would be the perfect present for her.
The puzzle has 300 pieces and although it does not recommend an age range I would recommend this and other puzzles in the 'Horrible' series for ages 7 -10. We found that it made an ideal transition between completing children's jigsaws which are small and tend to be done over and over again as they take such a short amount of time to complete, to a more adult approach of having a puzzle on the go and completing it over a few days. The pieces are larger than those in a true adult puzzle measuring approximately 3cm square, but are packed with detail so that the child can more easily work out where they belong in the overall picture. As an adult it has just taken me ¾ of an hour to complete this, so for a child it provides a good challenge.
**The Picture**
I love the picture on this puzzle which is illustrated on the top of the box, as you would expect. It's a puzzle of two halves with a bright cheerful above ground section with common insects that we all recognise such as ladybirds, a butterfly, stick insect and caterpillar, set in a background of a fence, grass and vegetation. Down at the bottom though things turn decidedly darker with ants busy laying eggs and a mole is just about to devour the worm he has caught. There are even a few interesting bits of treasure lurking down there as well as a bright red coke can that brightens things up, and also demonstrates that litter has formed a habitat for underground creepy crawlies. There really are loads of bugs going about their daily tasks, as they would in the real world, although maybe we wouldn't find dung beetles parked just so close to leaf eaters or stag beetles in our own back yards. There's plenty of action to look out for and lots to talk about.
The puzzle is not frightening at all as it is presented in a cartoon like way and the creatures all look friendly. Speech bubbles are liberally scattered over the puzzle with jokes or funny captions printed on them, such as the two snails saying to each other 'What took you so long' and in reply 'I was going at a snail's pace' and the worm who is about to be ingested yelling 'mummy' as mole utters 'yummy'.
As well as all of these familiar bugs there are many that I would have been unable to identify or only in a very generic way. The real educational component of this puzzle can then be used, as an eight page 'loony leaflet' comes with the puzzle.
**The Loony Leaflet**
This is a thin paper leaflet that folds out into two flat sides of paper and is monochrome with dark green print on a white background. The booklet is introduced by 'Will D Beest', the intrepid explorer, who also features on the outside of the box, encouraging children to 'Get a buzz out of this puzzle'. On the first page he encourages children to look in any dark and creepy corner as bugs are never far away and then goes on to tell them some factual information about insects such as the three component parts of their bodies and when a bug is and isn't an insect. Pages two and three have line drawings of some of the bugs who feature in the puzzle with useful information about them. As an adult I learned a lot too from this. Did you know that an assassin bug sneaks up on termites which are its prey, with termite poo piled on its back to disguise itself as a pile of poo - well neither did I! It's great to study the puzzle picture with a child and read the facts as the information always includes the gory bits that children will love and remember.
Page 5 and 6 give some cultural examples and introduce terminology such as 'Entomologist' by telling the story of a lady who published a book of insect drawings in 1705 after travelling over the world studying them. A multiple choice quiz is also included, although the answers aren't hidden far away so it may be good for parents to read the questions out rather than the child reading them and finally there are some teasers for children to take back to school and quiz their teacher with. This is a great little educational resource for parents to use with the puzzle, but you could also buy the 'Ugly Bugs' book to go with it too.
The completed size of the puzzle is 47 x 67cm so fairly big due to the large pieces, but at least it's not as big as the floor puzzles you will have been used to them doing when they were toddlers. I would recommend completing this on a table or puzzle board though as the pieces are small and need a firm base to support them, and they probably will need to be left out for a while. The box measure 38 x 33 x 5cm so is going to take up quite a bit of space in the cupboard. It's a bright yellow box with the logo 'Science with the squishy bits in pieces' and on the back children are asked if they are 'itching to, spot some creepy crawlies, tackle the blood thirsty quiz or try some tortuous teasers on your teachers'. Symbols indicate that the puzzle is made in China and is recyclable. It has the lion mark stating that it conforms to B.S. 5665 and is not suitable for 0 - 3 year olds, as obviously the pieces are small.
**Our experience**
My daughter had this puzzle when she was about 8 or 9. She was really pleased with it when first given it as she had already enjoyed doing another puzzle in the series, so knew it would be fun to do with lots of bright colours and things to look for. These were the first puzzles where we taught her to search for all of the edge pieces and then compile the insides by looking for specific pieces, such as all of the bits with pink wriggly worms, or all of the fence pieces. She had been used to completing her older puzzles very quickly and wasn't brilliant at sustaining her attention for these, but she was ready to progress and had watched me doing puzzles as I always have one out on a board, so she did manage to complete the end result. This puzzle hasn't had as much use as those ones for younger children; she enjoyed it at the time, but much as I only want to do a 1000 piece puzzle once and then move onto a different challenge, so the same applied to this. I would therefore recommend maybe buying second hand or swapping with friends as otherwise they may not get masses of use from it.
The booklet was something that we used together, but judging by how pristine it still looks, she didn't use it any more on her own. I would thoroughly recommend this though and think they are a great addition to the collection for children who enjoy the 'Horrible' books and give them 4 stars. They are listed online e.g. Lamb Toys for £7.99 and recently on Ebay for £1.99, although it does seem to have disappeared from amazon listings recently, so it may be worth looking on independent toy shop sites or for a second hand version. A jigsaw book version is also available as well as other puzzles in the series, such as the Rotten Romans that I would also recommend.
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ELC Dinosaur Puzzles
by Lools_24
My twin boys are puzzle mad and if I'm honest I can't help myself but treat them to puzzles especially when I visit ELC and see that there is a sale on. So during a half price toy sale I noticed that not only were the mini puzzle sets which my boys love were down to half price, there was also a set reduced that we did not have in our ... collection. So I found myself buying the ELC Dinosaur Puzzles.
***ELC Dinosaur Puzzles***
The ELC Dinosaur Puzzles are a collection of six two piece dinosaur themed puzzles which come in a small storage box. Each of the six puzzles consist of two pieces which slot together to show the image of a different Dinosaur. As someone who is not really a dinosaur expert the only way I can differentiate between the puzzles is by colour and the six puzzles include a yellow, blue, brown, green, purple and pink dinosaur on them. The puzzles all vary in shape but are around 8cm by 8cm in size. All of the puzzles are made from a hard durable cardboard with a shiny coating that you can wipe clean. The puzzles come in a small rectangular cardboard box with a carry handle so you can store all of the six puzzles together when not in use.
ELC state that the Dinosaur Puzzles are suitable for children from 18 months old.
The RRP of the ELC Dinosaur Puzzles is £6.00 and are available from ELC stores and the ELC website. However I purchased these puzzles during a half price toy sale for £3.00 which I feel is excellent value considering the amount of play and enjoyment my boys have got from these puzzles.
***Our Experience***
Like many other of the mini puzzle sets from ELC the Dinosaur puzzles come in a small rectangular box with string handle which my boys take great pleasure in carrying around like a handbag. Aside from using as a handbag the boxes are very handy for using as a storage box so you can keep all of the puzzle pieces from the set together, particularly useful if you own a number of these puzzle sets. I would say that you do need to take care with the box however as although it is made from quite hard durable cardboard if your child tries to sit on the box (like my boys have) they will bend out of shape and this could ruin the box.
My boys were around 21 months old when I bought the ELC Dinosaur Puzzles for them to play with. The Dinosaur puzzles are recommended from 18 months and over and personally I feel my boys would have got more benefit and enjoyment from these puzzles if I had bought them this set when they were slightly younger. At 21 months my boys had been playing with the ELC mini puzzle sets for a number of months and in terms of puzzles I do feel developmentally they were quite competent as we have so many for them to play with. As a result after playing with for a month or so they were no longer challenged and entertained for as long by these puzzles and by the time that they reached two years old I do feel the two piece Dinosaur Puzzles were a little too simple for them and they preferred the mini puzzle sets that had three pieces to put together. When I play with puzzles of this type with my boys I tend to put the puzzles together first so they know what the images on the front of the puzzles are then break up the pieces for them to match up. I have stopped doing this with the Dinosaur puzzles to challenge my boys more therefore I do find that they play with this puzzle set a lot more independently as they do not depend on me to help them so much but even so I do think at the age of 2 years old they have slightly outgrown the Dinosaur Puzzles set.
As the Dinosaur Puzzle set contains six different Dinosaur themed puzzles I find this great for sharing between my boys so great for those that want to encourage their child to play alongside other children. Even so my boys still want the exact puzzle the other one has but from experience this is the case for everything we own even if I buy two of the exact same toy!
Developmentally I think like most of the other mini puzzles the ELC Dinosaur puzzles are very good for encouraging a child's hand eye coordination and for younger children the design of the puzzles and the smooth puzzle shapes are very easy to slot together and then take apart again. The puzzles also help with a child's problem solving skills and because each of the Dinosaur Puzzles are a different colour you can encourage a child to match pieces of the same colour together to make the correct image.
With other ELC mini puzzle sets I have found as great ways to encourage a child's speech by getting them to name the object on the puzzle piece they are matching (i.e. farm animals or vehicles) with the Dinosaur puzzles I feel this is a little more difficult and there are less benefits as I'm not really too educated on the different types of dinosaur. Therefore I find myself teaching and talking to my boys about different colours as this is the only real way for a toddler to distinguish between the puzzles and the different dinosaur images.
I do find that the ELC Dinosaur puzzles are slightly more durable than many of the other ELC puzzle sets and the puzzle pieces appear to be around 2mm thicker than many of the other pieces from other sets. This makes these puzzles slightly less inclined to bend when stepped on and much harder for a toddler to try and bend. The puzzle pieces are made from a cardboard with a wipe-able coating which is great for removing sticky marks by just using a damp cloth. My boys have attempted to chew on these puzzle pieces which has resulted in lasting teeth-marks on some of the puzzle pieces.
***Overall***
My boys really enjoy playing with the ELC Dinosaur Puzzles and for £3.00 I think they have been another excellent value puzzle set from ELC. We own a number of ELC puzzle sets and from the range on offer which includes farm animal, vehicles I would probably say that if I had a choice the Dinosaur Puzzles are in my opinion not one of the better sets from the range. I think I say this because there are less learning benefits associated with these puzzles than the other sets from the range. The six different puzzles can be differentiated by colours therefore you can ask your child to talk about the different colours to encourage their speech however I don't feel in terms of speech development and interaction the Dinosaur Puzzles are as good as the Farm Animal set for example.
The ELC Dinosaur Puzzles are however fun puzzles for children to play with and the benefit of there being six mini two piece puzzles are that there are enough puzzles for two children to play together with therefore this helps to encourage sharing. The two piece puzzles have bright attractive dinosaur images on and are well made and easy for a child to slot the pieces together. These puzzles are also a lot more durable and ever so slightly thicker than the puzzle sets from ELC aimed at children from 2 years old meaning that the pieces are less likely to bend if stood on.
My only real criticism of these as puzzles is that they are quite easy and less challenging for children who are competent with puzzles therefore I would probably recommend buying for children aged between 15 months and 2 years old to get the full benefit from these before they look for more challenging puzzles with more pieces.
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Gibsons I Love Great Britain Jigsaw
by benclark88
Im a bit of a loser when it comes to puzzles. I can easily sit for hours working on a jigsaw without a care in the world. Every Christmas or birthday I get given at least one puzzle. A couple of birthdays ago I received the Gibsons I Love Great Britain Jigsaw. I already owned a few Gibsons puzzles and knew they were a good quality. ...
For me it was at the perfect size. With 1000 pieces and a finish size of 485mm x 680mm I found the puzzle a challenge yet not too difficult that I got frustrated or put it away before completion.
The puzzle pieces are shiny and made of a very solid cardboard (2mm thick). The puzzle had bright clear colours making it easy to focus on different sections of the jigsaw. The artist, Mike Jupp (who has a range of puzzles), creates a busy picture full of all kinds of British greats. These include balloon faces of Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Churchill and the Beatles. These faces are set with a background of traditional British buildings, markets, shields and aircrafts. I love the picture. It sums up fantastic aspects of Britain in a fun cartoon way,
I really enjoyed this jigsaw and would recommend it to any jigsaw fan. Every now and then I go back and redo the puzzle and still get immense pleasure. It is fun and compelling. I saw the price of this for £12 which in my opinion is a bargain for hours of fun.
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