As a mom of a gifted child, I am always struggling to find toys that engage my son. It's hard to find the perfect balance of fun and educational, and many of the toys on the market are either 'fun' OR 'educational' no matter how hard the manufacturers try to hit both marks, I've found very few that have succeeded skillfully. Until now.
Over the summer I was introduced to the brand new Crayola Chalkboard USA Floor Puzzle. Manufactured by the
Lafayette Puzzle Factory, this colorful floor puzzle is perfect for kids of any age to help assemble, although it's marked ages 6+. The 48 large pieces are perfect for little hands and young puzzle enthusiasts, but make for a very large puzzle. At 2'x3', it's perfect on the play room floor.
The kids loved that they could doodle all over it, and we loved the fact that it provides an excellent opportunity to have fun (while learning the names of the states, locations of the states, and distance between various locations), and get excited about learning about the USA!
The entire surface of this puzzle can be written on with chalk, although some of the colors are better than others. My only "con" with this item is that it only comes with one piece of chalk, so as soon as the kids opened it, they started arguing about who's chalk it was. Thankfully, we use a lot of sidewalk chalk, so I grabbed another colored piece, and we were good to go.
My husband and son enjoyed playing "Guess the State" and then we, (READ: My Husband and I) got into a very competitive round of who could name the most states from across the room. Then it continued to how many state capitals we could name. (I won that, hands down!) Abbie loved learning that Idaho makes potatoes, that Vermont is where we get our syrup from, and that Indiana is where the Lafayette Puzzle Factory is! Alex loved pointing out all of the different states that we have family in, and measuring the distance between them. Since then, he's started memorizing the capitals, and has even engaged in some pretend play with his sister (pretending he's a teacher, but still, pretending!), which is totally not his norm.
We had so much fun playing with this during the overly-rainy-summer, and still do! Very rarely do we have a puzzle last for longer than a week or two in our house, but this one has survived our super-hard-testers, (and our disorganized lives), which is why it has earned our "MUST HAVES" badge.
The Crayola Chalkboard Floor Puzzle is available with three different backgrounds, Playground Fun, Space Zone, and USA Map. The Playground Fun and Space Zone puzzles look as though they have less room to doodle on, but still look fun to play with overall. The Crayola Chalkboard Floor Puzzle has also received the 2010 Puzzle of The Year award from
Creative Child Magazine.
I could see all three of these puzzles, (but more-so the map of the USA), being used in classrooms all over the world. Home schoolers or moms on the go could still get great pleasure over watching kids get excited about learning about their country, and have a blast expressing themselves artistically as well. You should start to see these products on the shelves of your local Toys R Us this fall.
Our new friends at Lafayette Puzzle Factory have offered one Chalkboard Floor Puzzle as a prize to one lucky 4BabyAndMom reader!
This giveaway is open to residents of the US. This giveaway will end on September 19, 2010 at 11:59pm EST. The winner will be chosen using Random.org, and all winner information will be posted on our WINNERS PAGE and on this post. Please include a valid email address in your comment. If we cannot find a way to contact you we will not, we will choose another winner. We do try to email all winners, but due to the volume of giveaways offered on our site, delays can be expected. If you catch your name before we email you, please feel free to contact us first. :) Any unclaimed prizes will be redrawn accordingly and at the discretion of 4BabyAndMom. This product was provided to me at no cost by the Lafayette Puzzle Factory. As always, what you have read is strictly the opinion of 4BabyAndMom. Your opinions may differ.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Please refer to the
WINNERS POST for more information on how to claim your prize.
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Recently, we were given the opportunity to ask several of our girl friends over to have a super fun girly glamor get-together to introduce them to the brand new 
this awesome campaign. "I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Mattel Fijit Friends and received coupons and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.” 
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