Imagimake Mapology World Map Puzzle - Includes Country Flags & Capitals | Fun Jigsaw Puzzle Kids Ages 5-8 | Educational Toys for Ages 8-13 | Geography Gifts for Girls & Boys 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

My daughter has a new found interest in USA states and capitals. This puzzle is perfect. Good quality, easy to read, and easy to assemble. She loves it so much that we ordered the Countries of the World version.

My son loves this and is always excited to pull it out and build his maps

Fun and educational

This is not so much a game as it is a somewhat self-correcting geography test. The puzzle pieces fit surprisingly well together, in spite of the fact that they're glorified craft foam. You'll have to watch your kid place the capital flags though, and try not to let them catch you surreptitiously looking up capitals you've never heard of on your phone or mouthing the words of Wakko's United States to yourself because you forgot that Pierre is the capital of South Dakota.The little plastic flags come with sheets of stickers that have the name of a capital on one sticker and that country's/state's flag on the other. Pro tip: have an adult do the sticker placing, otherwise you'll end up with a Canadian flag with "Havana" on the other side, which is fine if you're going for really subtle political commentary, but that's probably not going to help your middle schooler pass geography tests. If they still do geography tests in middle school. I don't know; I homeschool, which is why I bought this thing in the first place.The world is, of course, a big place, and some countries are apparently more, let's say, worthy of attention than others. Europe and the US get their own maps, but not even all of the European countries get their own little flag in the proverbial sand. Some of the states had to be combined into one puzzle piece because they're so small, which led to an interesting conversation about how basically every debate in our country boils down to population density. I'd like to see a more complete version, even if the box has to be bigger.My kid made the mistake of trying to move the Europe puzzle, resulting in Central Europe falling apart in a jumbled heap that was hard to put back together. I assured him that that happens in real life every so often, so he shouldn't worry about it.Rather like in Risk, South America has roughly 6 countries of note and none of them are the beautiful islands that anyone who plays real-life Risk (basically anyone with an off-shore bank account and a close relative in politics/the military industrial complex) would go on their vacay. Venezuela was troublesome--the Caracas flag slot wasn't done right and the flag kept falling over. Maybe it's a manufacturing error, maybe it's a metaphor--you decide.Africa has only 8 flags and several countries are too small to be labeled. This is the biggest area of improvement. Again, I'd like to see a bigger version with all countries and flags. Half this continent feels like it's changed since I memorized Yakko's World, and it's embarrassing that my kids know more African geography than I do.I'd also like to see a larger breakout of the Middle East, Asia, and Oceana because I'm a product of a time when our school system acknowledged Mesopotamia for a few thousand years and then forgot it ever existed, and the only Asian country was China until WWII, and then you learned about battles but with a vague understanding of them happening "somewhere in the Pacific." A good number of countries are flagged, but not all, so I'd love to see more completeness, if nothing else because Moana 2 is coming out and I still don't really have a solid grasp of where the Heart of Tafiti was supposed to go.A note about putting the game away--I guess I guess I'm a bad American because I didn't put the ol' US of A first. I put the world in the box first, then Europe, and tucked the flags to the side. I thought tension would hold the pieces together enough to transfer the puzzle to the box, but when I went to put America on top, the states fractured faster than in the aftermath of the election of 1860, or possibly 2024. Oops. Do yourself a favor and use the enclosed cardboard to put America first, then the other puzzles, and chuck the flags in wherever they fit.In all, I'm glad I got this--it's more fun to place flags in foam than it is to write a boring geography test. My flag recognition is terrible, which I was reminded of all over again during the Olympics, so I'm sure this will help ME learn as well as my kids. I'm rather hoping the company comes out with some expansions, but a bigger set with flag slots for every country would be even better. Even if they don't, this covers a good chunk of the world's countries and is a big help for the 50 states, and that's a good start.

Fantastic Product! Well made and well thought out. My kiddo loved watching the Prime video on Apollo 11 and then we got this--such a great school project and budded interest in rockets! We used it as a homeschooling project, and comes with pages to set up on white board to practice a presentation if you want!

This Map is perfect for teaching your kids the States and Capitols. I added each states abbreviation, as my 10 year old needed to know these for a test as well. It wasn't hard at all or time consuming. They build the puzzle, add the flags which the map already has the incerts cutout where the flags go. My only regret is that I didn't find this sooner. My little ones and I enjoy doing this together. It's a lot of fun testing eachother while holding up just the shape of each state. 100% recommend! I think it would be a great item in classrooms as well.

Apparently someone at the puzzle factory has an issue with the state of Kansas, because it’s X’d-out on my puzzle. (See photo.) So there may be a teeny issue with quality control. Other than that, my concerns with the puzzle are that the foam is flimsy and there isn’t a cardboard backing or tray to hold the puzzle’s shape while it’s being assembled. That makes it harder for kids to handle.On the plus side, I like that it’s brightly colored, and I think the state capitol flags are a nice touch.

My daughter needed to memorize the states and capitals in fifth grade, this map was a lifesaver! It was so much more fun than flashcards, and helped her understand the location of the states and their shapes as well as the capitals. I recommended it to all of her classmates, and would recommend it to everyone who needs to learn states and capitals!