Orchard Toys: Who's In Space? (Review & Giveaway)

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'Who's In Space?' is without a doubt one of my favourite Orchard Toys products produced in the last year or so. And I am a big fan and we have a lot of their games and puzzles, so that statement is not made lightly.

The 25 piece jigsaw puzzle is aimed at children aged 3+, and depicts a scene of three astronauts (mixed gender and race, as with all Orchard Toys illustrations) on the moon completing some research. In the background are five of the planets in our solar system, the International Space Station, a comet, and a small green alien in a purple spaceship. Because after all this is a puzzle for children!

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Orchard Toys: 'Big Police Car' Jigsaw (Review & Giveaway)

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The Boy is getting to the point where he comfortable completes 35+ piece jigsaws, using the image to help him identify the correct pieces. He's got the tricks of finding the edges and corners first, then working out the different sections of colour, quite practised and enjoys piecing jigsaw puzzles together.

We were recently sent the new Orchard Toys Big Police Car jigsaw to review, and although it has fewer pieces than he's used to (30 pieces) it actually offered him quite a large challenge due to the nature of the design.

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Orchard Toys: Jungle Express Puzzle (Review)

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We've got quite a few Orchard Toys jigsaw puzzles, especially the big ones, and I'm a big fan of their brightly coloured and attractively drawn illustrations. They are very attractive for pre-schoolers and The Boy is always drawn to Orchard Toys' games and puzzles above any others.

The Jungle Express puzzle is a slightly different puzzle to normal, as it has been designed as a 'talkabout number puzzle' ideal for pre-schoolers and children in the Foundation Phase as it promotes discussion about numbers in a natural way giving context to the concept.

As you can see, the picture shows a train with an engine and ten carriages following behind. In each carriage is a different quantity of an animal, dependent upon the number carriage they are in. It's a 30 piece jigsaw; three rows and ten pieces in each row.

Normally The Boy is capable of doing jigsaw puzzles between 30 and 50 pieces, and so I was initially apprehensive of the challenge of this jigsaw, but was happy to review it for the mathematical development available through it. However, it is actually quite a challenging jigsaw because of the way that the carriages have been drawn going up and down hills; they don't join together in a straight forward manner. This in itself is mathematical development because it relies upon The Boy drawing upon problem solving skills; using a picture to solve a problem, trial and error, and logical thinking. (And if you think I've just made up those areas of problem-solving, then I shall happily show you the hand-outs from a Maths course I went on a few years ago).

We've developed our own way of doing the puzzle, in opposition to the normal 'do the edges first' approach; we do the middle row first. This way he can link the carriages together in the correct order, then we do the 'sky' row and then the 'ground' row.

This puzzle of course can be left at just joining the pieces, but it would be a travesty not to take advantage of the opportunities for discussion. There are times when I look desperately for a question to ask about something, and my brain fails me. Orchard Toys recognises that sometimes there are days when there's not enough coffee or chocolate to help, and so on the back of the box they have printed a brilliant guide which gives over fifteen questions to start you off; Can you find the ___? What is the colour of the ____ carriage? Are there more ___ or ___ on the train? and my favourite question: Where do you think the train is going?


One of my favourite parts of any Orchard Toys product is the 'Educational Guide':

  • Develop counting and number skills.
  • Develop hand-eye co-ordination and fine motor skills.
  • Help compare, discuss and investigate.
  • Links with Early Learning Goals and National Curriculum Key Stage 1.

But of course, our most favourite part is how much fun they are!

'Jungle Express' is available from Orchard Toys for £9.75

We were sent this product for the purpose of this review, our opinions is honest and unbiased.

Toy Genius: Cows On The Farm Jigsaw (A Review)

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Surely by now, even complete strangers know how much I adore the wooden toy shop, ToyJeanius?

We've been incredibly fortunate to have been sent a wide variety of toys by my favourite independent toy shop to review, and just before Christmas The Boy was lucky enough to be sent this beautiful jigsaw puzzle:

Les vaches à la ferme (or 'The Cows on the Farm' to you and me) is a beautifully illustrated and colourful jigsaw by the brilliant Djeco, who make traditional and timeless puzzles with a modern spin on them. This puzzle is no different, as the box is in the shape of a Daisy moo-cow containing the sturdy 24-piece puzzle inside.

The puzzle is 16"x12" in size, with each of the pieces measuring approximately 2.5" across. The chunky size of the pieces means that they are easy to handle and manipulate, and are able to contain a significant section of the final picture on it, making it easier to complete.

The high-gloss, colourful puzzle contains a farmyard scene, not just of the titular cows but also pigs, ducks, chickens, birds, a cat and a dog. Most of the animals are grouped together which makes it easy to find the pieces and join them up, plus it makes discussion afterwards a lot easier. And we do discuss it, a lot. There's so much going on in the picture that it would be hard not to! The Boy's favourite part of this puzzle is counting the animals afterwards, and as there are different and increasing amounts of the various animals it allows for his numerical skills to be developed with ease.

Develops:

  • Co-ordination
  • Problem-solving and logical thinking
  • Numeracy
  • Literacy (positional language and oracy)
  • Fun!

At £9.95 this is a quality jigsaw to stand the test of time, and would make a beautiful gift for someone.

I'm a Toyjeanius toy genius

Readers of TheBoyandMe can get a 10% discount by entering the code 'TheBoyandMe' at the checkout.

We were sent this jigsaw for the purpose of the review. Our opinions are honest and unbiased.

Orchard Toys: Giant Road Jigsaw

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 The Boy has recently developed a taste for cars. Cars and jigsaws! As long as he can 'brum' a car along then he's a happy chappy. Give him a 24-piece jigsaw as well and he's in seventh heaven!

Now wouldn't it be good if someone combined the two together?

Well, the genuis that is Orchard Toys have! They've created an extra large floor puzzle in the format of a road jigsaw. Now strictly speaking this is not a typical jigsaw: as there are a great deal of combinations that can be created from the 20 chunky pieces which include corners and junctions, as well as straight roads.

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Review: Happyland Puzzles (ELC)

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I popped into Mothercare yesterday to buy The Boy a pair of sunglasses (with the band that goes around the back of the head) and ended up spending £56 on toys in the Early Learning Centre department! They've got a brilliant little wheelbarrow at the moment, which he just had to have, and some other things fell into the trolley as I was walking around. (Whoops, don't tell hubby!)

One of the things that I bought is the Happyland Puzzles, which is a set of 6 puzzles for ages 18 months – 3 years.

I'd become very conscious lately that the only puzzles that The Boy ever does is the inlay designs; this is not helping him develop his problem-solving skills that much. I was especially alarmed when a work colleague had told me that her 2½ year old son had just completed a 25-piece jigsaw. I panicked! I don't think that The Boy has managed more than a 2-piece one that I bought him at Christmas and he struggled with then!

[Please note the image shows a tin and the one I bought came in a cardboard box made from 'forest friendly cardboard'. I know which one I prefer]

Why I particularly like this pack is three-fold.

  1. It has 6 jigsaws in it, some are 2-piece, some are 3-piece and some are 4-piece. It doesn't follow suit that the hardest one is the 4-piece; I actually think that the hardest one is the 3-piece one because of the angles that it has to join in at. Therefore they are of differentiated ability and challenge. As a teacher, this pleases me.
  2. The pictures are of the Happyland range, and we have quite a few of them. Seeing his face earlier as he recognised the merry-go-round was classic. He then upped and pulled open his toybox and yanked it out. He looked back at the picture and even tried to press the button on the jigsaw. The other set that we have that features on the jigsaw is the school, and yes, he tried to open the door on the school and press the bell on the tower.
  3. The pieces are nice and chunky, but small enough for little hands. They're also made of FSC mixed sources cardboard.

This jigsaw set is a winner in this household and at only £6 is a bargain as far as I'm concerned.

No, I didn't get the sunglasses, they're not in stock yet.

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