Educational Africa Jigsaw Puzzle for Kids

MapStudio has a great range of educational games and their Senior Africa Jigsaw Puzzle is one of them.

When I first saw the puzzle was marked ‘senior’ I pictured myself wrapping it up for grandpa at Christmas time, but after a closer look at the box, I noticed that MapStudio has marked the puzzle for kids 9 years and older. Still, for grandpa, I suppose, but more for little Johnny’s enjoyment.

MapStudio has created an Africa specific jigsaw puzzle for kids 9 and up

Family fun

Puzzles are really great when the whole family get involved. It may be a rather quick bonding session if you decide to redo that twelve piece Ben 10 puzzle, but the Senior Africa Jigsaw Puzzle will definitely give you a bit more time to ponder as a unit around the table seeing as it is 300 pieces strong.

According to the brains at Social Psychiatry jigsaw puzzles are great for kids because they get you to use both sides of your brain at once. As it goes, the right side of the brain is responsible for emotions and carrying out tasks holistically. The left side of the brain is responsible for doing things in a linear fashion. Jigsaw puzzles call on both these sides of the brain to function at once which means that your mind power is well used and helps it get better. So not only are your kids shuffling around a bright illustration of Africa, it’s capital cities, country borders, tropics, equator, oceans and country flags, but they’re also exercising their brains.

Puzzles for kids are great because they require the use of both sides of the brain

Africa jigsaw puzzle – it’s a brain game

Anyway, a jigsaw puzzle of Africa is great for taking on a road trip. Sure they’re not ideal for the car, but they are perfect for an after-dinner activity and if your kids have been learning loads about the route and the place you’re travelling to as a family, then a geography-themed puzzle is just the educational game to give them during your trip.

An Africa map puzzle is also great if you let it keep giving after it’s helped with all the left-and-right-brain-functioning-together thing. If you frame the Africa jigsaw puzzle you can use it regularly, showing your kids where in the world certain things in the news are happening, or for evening games where you need to name country capitals or put names to country flags. Good old fashioned family fun (or at least the way my family used to do it).

A jigsaw puzzle of Africa makes learning fun for kids

Assembling puzzles 101

If your kids like to go nuts and fit and shuffle puzzles – great, let them get stuck in! But if your kids find themselves getting a bit frustrated with puzzles, then there’s no time like the present to teach them the best way to assemble a puzzle if they haven’t learned before.

Pick a surface that is going to be big enough for your completed puzzle (the Africa jigsaw puzzle is 610 x 460 mm)
Empty the box and make sure all the pieces are facing up
Pick out all the edge pieces and put them one side
Split the pieces into colour groups (helps follow the design on box)
Put together the edges to form the frame of your puzzle
Put sections of colour that match together roughly where they belong in the picture
Go wild and shift, place and shuffle until you’re done
Decide what you want to do with the puzzle. Back in the box, or to the framer?

You know, maybe grandpa will get one under the Christmas tree this year, after all, you’re never too old to learn something new.

Want an Africa Jigsaw Puzzle?

Like us on Facebook and WIN!

To win a copy of MapStudio’s Africa Senior Jigsaw Puzzle, all you need to do is like us on Facebook. At the end of the month, we draw three names from our pool of Drive South Africa fans to determine the winners. Good luck!

Where to buy the puzzle for kids?

Online:

If you’d like to buy one of these puzzles for your kids online, you can do so from MapStudio’s website.

Physical store:

Maps and Travel
Shop ST3A
Rivonia Village Shopping Centre
Rivonia Boulevard
Rivonia, Johannesburg
GPS co-ordinates: 26º03’34.00″S 28º03’37.65″E
Tel: 011 807 5470

If you are looking to go on an adventure in South Africa, you might want to look into having some wheels to get around. Car hire South Africa would be the best place to start looking.