There’s something especially cheerful about this latest cooperative game from Peaceable Kingdom! Sunny Day Pond was a hit with our preschooler testers. They loved that they were working together to make three puzzles that feature an orange duck, a purple fish and a green frog. Players use the spinner to determine which color puzzle piece they’ll be using. But beware, there are raindrops! If six raindrops are collected, the round is over! Very sweet. Designed for 2-4 players, ages 3 and up.
We’re always on the look out for new puzzle makers. Duo Press has joined our short list of favorites! Their new 20 piece My San Francisco Puzzle and My New York Puzzle are both visually very pleasing, made on sturdy stock and are just right for the 3 & up crowd. Each puzzle comes in a well-designed box that will make storage easy and long-lasting. Read our reviews at www.toyportfolio.com
.
Tomorrow we begin Toy Fair with visits to both Mattel and Hasbro. This week our mail boxes are FULL of new toys vying for attention at this year’s fair.
This one got my attention: Ravensburger’s largest commercially available puzzle (according to the Guinness Book of World Records). Complete with 32, 256 pieces. It will measure 17′ x 6′ –so the family dining room table will be out of the question!
The puzzle features the artwork of the late Keith Haring. It weighs 42 pounds and comes with it’s own hand truck!
The puzzle will retail for $299.
For more info, visit Ravensburger.com
If you have a Thomas & Friends fan at home, chances are they will love the new jumbo floor puzzles from Briarpatch. Working on a puzzle with your preschooler is a great way to build their problem solving skills and ability to stick with a task. Click here to read our complete review. 
Looking for a great way to build your child’s patience and ability to stick with a task? Puzzles are a wonderful way to connect and talk about problem solving skills. Give your child some strategies–“can we find all the flats?” “all the pieces that are green?”
The idea is to find puzzles that will build confidence. Save the 1,000 piece puzzles for you! Some kids take to puzzles very easily–for others they are just pure frustrating…that usually means the puzzle is too hard. This set from Briarpatch comes with four puzzles. Our suggestion — take on the pieces out for one puzzle at a time and leave the rest in the box! Read our complete review and shopping info on our site.
Also be sure to visit Jean Marzollo’s website (the author of the I Spy series). It’s chock full of activities for kids that are fun (and not a waste of their time or minds!).
Artist Dan Dunn
This week it’s all about speed..skating, skiing. So I was interested when I got a press release about speed painter, Dan Dunn. He’ll be doing puzzles for Serendipity this year. It will be interested to see how his work translates to puzzles. In the meantime, you can watch him paint (FAST) at a recent Super Bowl event.