This inexpensive (approximately $15) jigsaw puzzle provides an easy and fun way to learn World Geography. Pieces are cut along country borders (although larger countries are split into pieces). Colors are simple and continents, oceans, countries and capitals are clearly marked. A few of the smaller countries are joined together in one piece. Canada is broken up into pieces cut along the province borders. The United States is broken up into pieces composed of one or two states each.

You might think the oceans would be diffcult to assemble given the vast areas they cover. Well, they thought this through pretty well. The ocean pieces connect with traditional jig-saw shapes (except for island pieces). Even better, they are printed with information about each of the countries of the world - in alphabetical order - in order to easily identify the general area they belong in. If you start by piecing together the border and then the oceans, the country pieces will stay together quite nicely. A nice picture of the map on the box makes a very helpful reference.

My nine-year-old son and I really enjoyed assembling this puzzle over the course of two days. Because of the amount of information on each piece (country, size, shape, etc) it is much easier to assemble than a standard jigsaw puzzle with the same number of pieces (There are just a few pieces that you will need to identify simply by color and shape - both in the ocean and in a few of the very large countries). The puzzle is recommended for ages eight and up. Children younger than eight might be frustrated by the coordination needed to work with some of the smaller pieces. Some of my younger children (as young as five) did enjoy helping put together the border pieces.

A great value and highly recommended!