Floor Puzzle

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Floor Puzzle

by Carlie
(USA)

Annie's 2 Year Old Granddaughter building Her World Map Floor Puzzle

We've recently got a giant floor puzzle that is a map of the world. Because my brother and family have just moved to Hong Kong, my son (aged 6) is fascinated with maps of the world and trying to figure out where other countries are.

I don't know if he really grasps the concept of distance as he has never been in a plane, let alone overseas, but we can go on the internet and show him comparisons of distances that he knows - like how far away school is, and then try to show him how much further away Hong Kong is.

Having the giant puzzle on the floor has been great because he can jump onto another country and is starting to recognize where they are in relation to USA.

What started as an impulse buy to try to show him where Hong Kong is, has ended up being one of the best educational toys I've ever bought. I don't know if it is age, but he is just like a sponge wanting to know all sorts of things that seem to spring off from talking about different countries.

We've had conversations about travel - planes, boats, trains. We've talked about languages and we looked up on google and he got to listen to different languages. We've made up some map games so he recognizes country names and letters and he seems to have taken a leap in his reading since we got the map. I put it down to the fact that he has a reason to be really interested and motivated to figure out where his cousins live now.

The next thing is to save up and take him to Hong Kong to visit them!

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Floor Puzzle

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Fantastic Educational Toy!
by: Annie Desantis

Thanks Carlie,

I agree, World Maps and giant floor puzzles are a great way to teach children about geography. I've popped a photo up of my little grand-daughter building her Floor Map that I sent her from Australia.

I have a similar situation to you, she lives in the UK, and I live in Australia, and she has been out here so has some understanding that "strayla is up up in the plane, long long wayago". After I visited her last time I sent the World Map Floor Puzzle to her so she could get a bit of a visual idea of where Australia is.

I really like the way you have extended the use of your World Map, and really that is what makes the best educational toy - parent's interaction with the child to extend them and give them other ideas and knowledge. Being able to explore and find out more information using the internet is a great way to keep a child's curiosity and interest firing.

Well done, I hope you get to go to Hong Kong in the near future!

Annie D:)

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