U.S. 4D Map Puzzle: A Timberdoodle Review
_____________________________________________
This is a review post. Timberdoodle graciously sent me a free product in exchange for a review. A review that is always my own, honest and truthful, and hopefully helpful.
_____________________________________________
Every March a homeschool conference takes place in our town. People drive from miles away, they stay for several days, they attend lectures and listen to experts and shop for new school curriculum and seek out advice and opinions and new ideas for their own homeschools.
This annual event happened just last week. Although I didn’t attend the actual conference this year, I did head over to the exhibit hall for the free evening of perusing the curriculum tables. And I was reminded that my kids have really grown up. That the sweetest days of homeschooling the way I envisioned – around the kitchen table and outside on a picnic blanket and on darling field trips – has really passed me by.
It is different now.
Not bad and not less than. But different.
(I’ll hold all those feelings in for another post – because the post and the feelings are bubbling over inside me every single second of the day.)
The loss of those big and frequent together learning times is exactly why I wanted to review the 4D Cityscape USA History Over Time Puzzle. (Goodness, that’s a long title!)
I love how puzzles bring all ages together and that is exactly what I wanted to happen.
We love puzzles. (I mean, technically, I love puzzles. But even though my kids would verbalize a general disregard for, oh, I don’t know, everything, whenever I put a puzzle on the table, everyone pitches in.)
Which means, I frequently pull out the puzzle board and plop one down. Then, while we’re reading at night or talking during the day or randomly walking by, the puzzle gets completed.
This one is a BIG undertaking.
The idea is that you would assemble this 4D map in stages. First, you’d put together the states – as they were claimed as territories, in historical order. Second, you’d finish each state as it became an official state with a different layer of foam puzzle. Next, you’d add in monuments and memorials in 4D fashion – in time order as well.
Does that sound overwhelming?
It kind of was.
I will say – we did TRY to go in order. But assembling a puzzle in time order instead of straight edges first is really hard for me. And we didn’t always stick to it. I did, however, force the kids to not add the foam and the three dimensional pieces until the entire puzzle was complete. Which, for some reason, really bothered Bergen who was just desperate to lay down those Rocky Mountains before their time arrived in our plan.
It was a challenging puzzle – and, honestly – it was a little more difficult that we expected. We had a hard time matching up some pieces and getting it all straight. This could definitely be user error, of course.
Everyone’s favorite part was for sure the inserting of the memorials and the tiny buildings. Plus, I do think it’s a really fun and helpful way to see where those all belong across the United States.
All five kids helped – although the youngest three were most enthusiastic about the finishing touches. In fact, at the end, the puzzle looked so cool that Piper and Otto insisted we pull out the puzzle glue and make this one permanent.
(I have my doubts about this because their goal is to hang it on the wall and I am a little afraid over time that the monuments will lose their place – but I guess we’ll see.) It’s hard to discourage kids who love a project and want to keep it in their rooms longer!
I think if you could really knuckle down and require the puzzle to go through the exact steps intended, it would be even more educational. Naturally, that’s not my strong suit.
You can purchase your own History Over Time puzzle right here at Timberdoodle.
_____________________________________
