Customer Reviews

Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden USA Map Sound Puzzle

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have a 7 year old and twin 4 year olds. I bought it for the 7 year old to work on geography over the summer. All three children love puzzles and love that this puzzle talks. They all use it and it will make learning the US states and capital much easier and more fun. Be careful if you leave it in the family room without the pieces because the lights from the room and TV activate the speaker and the puzzles talks to you all evening long. Keep the puzzle pieces in the puzzle or the puzzle in the closet.

Purchased these for my four year old twins who love puzzles. They worked fine to start, but after a few days they both broke. They weren't subjected to rough play or anything, but now some of the states don't work, and they go off at random times, like when you walk near them, or turn the lights in the room off. I've had to take them out of the kids' rooms because at all hours of the night I would hear "Idaho -- Boise," and "California -- Sacramento." I was extremely dissatisfied with their durability.

I am very impressed with the quality of this puzzle and my daughter loves playing with it. The sound announces the state name and capital city when a piece is placed. Very good for learning geography of the USA.

I thought the puzzle that gave states as well as their capitols would be great for my 5 year old daughter. I was VERY disappointed when I realized how the map worked. If you put ANY state over the "Texas" sensor the map identifies it as Texas and gives the state capitol as "Austin". No matter what state you place over any particular sensor, the map gives the state and capitol information related to the sensor...not the puzzle piece. My daughter propmtly held up South Dakota after putting it over the Minnesota sensor and proudly proclaimed South Dakota as Minnesota. I will have to turn off the voice portion of the map so my daughter does not get confused. I certainly wouldn't recommend this product.

I purchased this puzzle in order to help my daughter learn state placement, as well as the capitals of each state. I thought it would be a fun, interactive way to reinforce what we were working on. Well, the puzzle is simply junk. You pull up a state, it gives you the incorrect capital. For example, it randomly starts spitting out states and capitals when you select Florida, it claims you are placing Austin, Texas onto the board. It is extremely confusing for someone who is just learning where each state is located. If you want your child to think that Louisiana is located near Idaho, this is the puzzle for you. Also, some of the states aren't cut individually which adds to the high level of confusion. Please, do not waste you money on the puzzle like I did.

I bought this for my 4 year old for Christmas. There are a handful of things I don't like about it. One, the pieces aren't necessarily shaped like the state. It's hard to explain, but each state is outlined on the board and then the actual piece isn't necessarily that exact shape. It's confusing to my daughter who normally does great with puzzles. Two, when you put a piece in place you hear the name of the state and the capital...which is great. But I was wish it only announced the state if it was the RIGHT piece. YOu can put Kansas in Colorado's spot and it will say "colorado, denver". Three, the pieces are breaking easily and my daughter isn't hard on things. Four, the sound is light sensitive...if every piece isn't in place and you turn the lights off or on, you start hearing all the states/capitals being announced. A bit annoying.

At the very least I would go with a regular puzzle of the United States...skip the sound.

Length:: 3:45 Mins

Thanks to this puzzle, my 2-year-old daughter learned all the 50 states and many of their capitals. Initially I glued some pieces on the board so that they are less slippery and it's less challenging for her, but once she got used to it, I gradually removed them one by one. Now she can put all the pieces in the right places without help and she seems to feel great satisfaction when she completes it. She wants to play over and over. Her twin brother doesn't show nearly as much interest in it, although he also plays with it occasionally. So I think it depends on the kids, but you never know what your kids are good at unless you let them try a lot of different things. My only complaint about this puzzle is that it doesn't have an on/off button, and the sensors are rather over-sensitive, so even when no one is around the puzzle, just by walking by or closing a door, the voice can be easily triggered. At first it was a little spooky to hear "Arkansas, capital Little Rock" in the middle of the night. I got used to it, though.

The biggest problem I got is it doesn't have an on/off switch. So when you turn on/off your light, or even when there is a cloud passing by in the sky, it will start to talk. Think about it: you turned on/off the light in the middle of the night to get something, all the sudden you heard "Alabama ...", quite scary isn't it?

Even though this puzzle is intended for children, it has another use. My blind mother wished she could remember the placement of all of the states. She said "If only they made a puzzle-like product that had all of the states which would talk when you pressed each state." I searched and searched through all the catalogs of products made for visually impared people and found nothing. Then a friend showed me the Melissa & Doug USA Map Sound Puzzle she had bought for a child. Wow! This was exactly what I was looking for.

My mom found the puzzle easy to use and has spent hours with it. The voice is loud and clear. So far, she has been able to remove each piece, listen to the information, and replace it without getting "lost". The only negatives for this kind of use is that the intended use is to take all the pieces out, then put them back one-by-one. For a blind person, you have to take each piece out separately and put it back before taking the next piece out. Getting an inland state out can be a bit difficult. Also, some of the smaller states are grouped into one piece, so a blind person only can tell that the states are grouped, but can't tell how they relate geographically to each other.

For its intended use as a child's puzzle, it would work fine. Just make sure your child is over the age where he or she would try to swallow a piece. They are small and can be a choking hazard.

I'm not hearing music, animals, vehicles, letters, numbers or more, as in the product description on this webpage, only the state names and capitals. On the manufacturer's website

[...]

they say: "As each piece is placed correctly in the puzzle board, your child will...hear the names of the states and capitals!" So the description on this amazon page is just wrong.

We haven't had the puzzle long enough for me to comment on durability. Everything else seems fine so far, but I expected a much better toy.