Customer Reviews

Melissa & Doug World Map 33 pcs Floor Puzzle

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought this for my niece who is 5 yrs old.

Pros:It is big and easy to organize and read the letters and the board itself is thick enough that it will not get torn apart by kids easily.
Cons: It lists only continents and not countries.For the size it is, it would have been better if it listed countries.

This is a nice, big puzzle with large pieces. The thing I mainly don't like is that only a few of the pieces are jigsaw-type (interlocking), the majority are just slide-together. This is very frustrating to my two children because the puzzle is always moving around and the pieces constantly have to be repositioned. I wish the country names had been included, but it's also nice to keep it simple for the very young child who just might want to learn the continents. I paid a lot more for this puzzle than what is being asked here, and I would not buy it again. Melissa and Doug also makes a wooden world map puzzle, which might be better.

I love this puzzle. We use it as a puzzle, and I am now using it to have the kids trace it to learn about the continents. Cons: The divide between Europe and Asia is by the political borders, not the physical borders of the mountains. Pros: (some view it as a con). The pieces of the puzzle are by the shape of the continents, not a jigsaw puzzle. It is a pro if the shape of the continents is most important. It is a con in that the pieces do not stay together. Also, the piece right below South America is very thin (width wise), so it broke in half. This also contributes to the pieces not staying together. The only solution would be to make the overall height of the puzzle bigger, because obviously we can't change the size of South America. Pro: the puzzle is just continents. Some people have said that they would want countries as well. Although, I would not have a problem if Melissa and Doug created another version of this puzzle with countries, I do hope that it would be an additional product and never a replacement of this product. Sometimes kids need to see the world by continents and sometimes by country. It would depend on the age of the child and what is being taught.

I generally love Melissa and Doug products, but this puzzle is absolutely awful. The pieces simply don't fit together well and my five year old got extremely frustrated (and so did I!). There are much better puzzles out there compared to this one.

My mother bought this puzzle for my six year old. It is very durable. The only drawback is that the pieces are not traditional lock and key puzzle pieces. They have rounded edges that fit next to each other but don't lock in place like traditional puzzles. It was a little more difficult to put together. He still enjoyed it.

My 4 year old loves jigsaw puzzles. She can figure out any jigsaw puzzle of less than 50 pieces in about 30 mins. She gave up on this one in 5 minutes because its not a jigsaw puzzle at all - just some oddly shaped pieces which do not lock in place and slip and slide as she looks for other pieces that go into the picture. And its a floor puzzle so as she's looking for other pieces, the puzzle does get nudged around.

SUCH a pointless toy. No child would ever complete this unless they have monumental patience to keep putting the pieces together and having them move around. What was Melissa and Doug thinking?

My 5 and 3 year old really enjoy puzzles. This has been a really good one for the two of them. They have learned their continents just by doing this puzzle and as with all the Melissa and Doug toys it is very well made. My only complaint is that the puzzle itself is only continents. It didn't take long for the kids to learn the 7 continents, now it would be nice if they could learn some countries too. A world map is included, but that is not as much fun as it would be on the puzzle.

I'm sorry for my English but I can't keep silence. I was surprised to know that Asia begins on west boundary of Russia. Of course, my son won't play this puzzle. For everybody: The boundary between Asia and Europe in Russia passes for Ural Mountains. But another hand, this toy has a kind of fun for educated people.

The inside pieces of this puzzle are very difficult to put together because of their shape, even if you know geography. My son is not interested in this puzzle at all, and he loves the USA map puzzle and the solar system puzzle. Instead of this puzzle, I recommend The Learning Journey Map of the World puzzle. The Learning Journey Puzzle Doubles Puzzle & Poster Series Map of the World Floor Puzzle

My daughter (4-yr) and I played with this puzzle a few times, and she enjoyed it. I wanted to have something for continents, not countries, so this is what I was looking for. I do agree with other comments that inter-lock would be helpful.