Penguin Puzzles And Plush

Here is some fun ways to learn about penguins. A shaped penguin jigsaw puzzle will surely open communication about the picture you are trying to solve. Did you know that penguins burn twice as much energy as any other animal when walking? They do because their legs are so short and they must exert so much effort just to get moving. Also penguins are birds that do not fly, they swim. How weird is that? They use their wings to swim. They can swim up to 15 miles per hour. Their tightly packed feathers help keep them warm in the cold water. This is just a few things you can talk about. What if your son or daughter, or perhaps grandson or granddaughter had a stuffed penguin that they could play with. You could have so much fun together. How do you feel about that?

Learning With Wooden Puzzles

Puzzles are a great way to learn about animals. Take for example this 48-piece wooden puzzle. This will open discussion about all the animals in the rain forest. You can talk about ants, or toucans, butterflies or snakes. Here is a challenge for you. Can you pick out the slowest animal in the world? Well if you picked the sloth hanging in the background, you are right. The sloth moves at a surprising speed of 0.124 miles per hour. That is just five times faster than a snail. See you already learned something and you didn't even assemble one piece yet. Does this make you want to sit down with a child and work on some wooden puzzles together?

Cheetah And Baby

Here is a picture of a stuffed cheetah and her baby. Did you know the cheetah is the fastest mammal on land? It can reach speeds of 60 or perhaps even 70 miles per hour, but only for a short distance. The only land animal that is faster is the tiger beetle, which can run up to 171 times its size in one second. Despite its famous reputation, the cheetah would have to run 770 kilometres per hour just to catch up with this slippery insect. Cheetahs usually chase their prey at only about half that speed. The cheetah's excellent eyesight helps it find the prey during the day. When the prey is spotted the cheetah begins to stalk or sneak up as close as possible before it attacks. It may lift its head high to keep the prey in sight but it keeps its body low so the spots on his fur can blend in with the tall dry grass of the plains and can stay hidden. At just the right moment the cheetah make a lightning fast dash and catches its dinner. After the chase the cheetah needs about a half an hour to catch its breath before it can eat. Did you learn anything you didn't know about cheetahs? Wouldn't a plush cheetah like the one above be a great way to teach you children about cheetahs?

Orangutan Fact

Here is a cute 48" stuffed orangutan. Have you ever seen one of these in real life at the zoo? They appear to be so graceful don't they. You see them swinging from tree to tree and having such fun. Now I have another question for you. Have you ever seen one fall? I have not. I didn't really think about it but I guess it only seems logical that once in a while they would miss a branch and fall. Well here is the fact. Researchers have found that 50% of the orangutans in the wild have fractured or broken bones. Who would have guessed. I guess they miss more often than we think. Wouldn't this plush orangutan look cute sitting in the corner of your child's room?

What Is Lent About?

The Most Important event of the year for Christians is Easter, the day when Jesus rose from the dead. Lent is a forty-day season of preparation for Easter beginning on Ash Wednesday. Putting together Christian jigsaw puzzles is something you can do during the Lenten season. The reason it is 40 days is because Jesus fasted and was tempted in the dessert for 40 days. Lent is our time of fasting, prayer, temptation and repentance. Lent is not required anywhere in scriptures, but for the last two thousand years it has been a custom, which Christians have practiced.

The word "Lent" actually means "fast" in many languages. This is where the custom of giving up something for Lent originated. Lent is actually 46 days rather than 40 days because the 40 days of Lent are supposed to be days of fasting, which means days of discipline and self-restraint. But Sunday is the Lord's Day and should never be a day of fasting, but a day of celebration! So each Sunday we suspend our Lenten disciplines and celebrate. Lent is 40 days of "fasting" spread out over a total of 46 days beginning on Ash Wednesday.

The focus of Lent has always been a time to prepare new converts for baptism through intensive classes and instruction, a time for long-standing Christians to review their lives and renew their commitment to Jesus Christ, and a time for backsliders to be restored to the faith.
It is a time for serious, disciplined self-examination, a time spent in intensive prayer and repentance before the cross of Calvary. To represent the dark and serious business of Lent, one custom has been to strip the sanctuary of all flowers, candles, and colors during Lent. This custom helps us to turn inward and examine ourselves, even as it reminds us of the dark and colorless Sabbath day when Jesus lay dead in the tomb.

Lent is a time for us to examine ourselves carefully. Here are some questions upon which you might pray and meditate during Lent:
Am I sharing gladly what I have with others, especially the stranger and the poor?
Do I have a gracious and patient attitude with others, especially those who irritate me?
Do I feel the power of connection to God and the church in corporate worship?
How is my prayer life progressing?

Am I listening to God more and complaining less?

Is it time for a change or a growth in my Bible study and prayer life?
What are the lurking sin problems, which still plague me?
Am I as thoughtful and forgiving of family members as others, or do I take my frustrations out on them? Try putting together religious jigsaw puzzles with the family to promote bonding.
Do I speak up for the maligned and oppressed, or do I remain silent in order to remain popular?

Puzzlers Challenge

All right all you puzzlers out there. Have you been doing jigsaw puzzles for a while. Need a challenge? Here is a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle that is quite a challenge. The colors blend together so well it is hard to differentiate the shades of blues, reds and greens which makes this a difficult jigsaw puzzle. The name of the puzzle is Majestic Mountain. Check out the photo, it is a beautiful picture of a mountain in the distance and a flowing creek in front.

Jigsaw Puzzles For Kids - Learning Fun

Jigsaw Puzzles are a classic game. With all the modern electronic games children have these days, they are not familiar with jigsaw puzzles. There are many things children can learn from kids jigsaw puzzles.


First of all, children learn Patience. What parent ever said my children have plenty of patience. We would all like to instill more patience in our children. While children are matching pieces and trying to solve the puzzle they are learning patience.


Jigsaw puzzles for kids help them learn to focus. With all the activities pulling kids in every direction, from sports to social activities, it is hard for them to focus. It is no wander there are many kids in our society with attention deficit disorders.


Self confidence is something kids need too. Solving a jigsaw puzzle helps kids feel confident in doing something on their own. They feel independent and may be less afraid to try new things later in life.


Kids can learn a number of things just from the story behind the puzzle. For example, putting together a united states jigsaw puzzle will help them learn the states, or an alphabet jigsaw puzzle will help them learn the alphabet.


Finally, while putting together kids jigsaw puzzles a family can talk and socialize which will teach kids how to communicate and how important family bonding is.

Stuffed Animals Make Wonderful Gifts

The favorite toy for children has always been the teddy bear and many grownups have kept theirs to this day!! There are lots of different kinds of bears, for example, polar bears and koala bears, brown bears, black bears plus they come in many sizes. This Polar Bear Mama and Baby Set is so adorable for example.
Some of the extra large bears can be used to decorate your child's bedroom and these can be up to six feet. The white polar bears would look great in a little girl's room, while a huge gorilla might be just the ticket for a boy.

Stuffed animals can actually be a wonderful learning tool for children. An example of this would be any of the jungle animals, such as a giraffe. There are also many new eco-friendly toys out, which make a perfect gift for anxious new parents.

Puzzles Of The Past To Shaped Puzzles Of Today

The original jigsaw puzzles go back to the 1760s when map makers pasted maps onto wood and cut them into small pieces. The "dissected map" has been a successful educational toy ever since. Children today still learn geography by playing with puzzle maps of the United States or the world. The puzzle makers from yesteryear would be amazed to see all the puzzles of today. Children's puzzles have moved from lessons to entertainment, showing subjects like animals, nursery rhymes, and modern tales of super heroes and Disney. But the biggest surprise would be how adults have embraced puzzling over the last century.

Around 1900, and by 1908 a full-blown craze was in progress in the United States. The puzzles of those days were quite a challenge. Most of them had pieces cut exactly on the color lines. There were no transition pieces with two colors to signal, for example, that the green area (grass) fit next to the reds (barn) and the pieces did not interlock so a sneeze could ruin hours of work. And, unlike children's puzzles, the adult puzzles had no guide picture on the box; if the title was vague or misleading, the true subject could remain a mystery until the last pieces were fitted into place.

Because wood puzzles had to be cut one piece at a time, they were expensive. A 500-piece puzzle typically cost $5 in 1908, far beyond the means of the average worker who earned only $50 per month. High society, however, embraced the new amusement. Peak sales came on Saturday mornings when customers selected puzzles for their weekend house parties .

Today there are shaped jigsaw puzzles and some that are a puzzle ball when it is completed. Most all jigsaw puzzles come with pictures on the box, and there are transition pieces which makes it easier to assemble. Puzzles today range anywhere from $5 to $50. You can even have a family photo made into a puzzle but these are a little more expensive.

Family Fun

It is all too easy to get caught up running from one place to the next these days. One child needs to get to soccer practice, while another is going off to a ballet or gymnastics class and yet another is out spending time with friends. It is hard to get everyone together to spend some quality time together. Family quality time is a great concept but does not seem to fit into our modern day family schedules. There are very few activities that a whole family can be involved in at the same time. It is important for families to get together and learn, talk and just catch up on what is going on with everyone. Many families today are resorting to video games for getting the family together. Playing video games isn't really interactive and conducive to great conversations the way that playing board games are. Watching TV or even having a DVD movie night is another past time but it isn't going to help you to start talking and really stay connected with your family. What you need when planning a family fun night is a focus for everyone’s attention, a centerpiece for the evening which promotes conversation. One of the best answers is a 100 piece jigsaw puzzle or a 200 piece jigsaw puzzle. They are not so big that they will take a week to solve, but offers that centerpiece you need to promote conversation and can generally be solved in a few hours.