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Free jigsaw puzzles
Jigsaw puzzles are fun and help children develop good pattern recognition, visual and fine motor skills. However, their benefits are generally short lived because once a child has done the puzzle they will soon lose interest in doing it again. For that reason, our wooden puzzles are designed to offer greater replay value than the traditional jigsaw puzzles.
But that doesn't mean traditional puzzles aren't fun to play once, so we have a nice selection of free puzzles here created using our own photographs and the excellent Jigs@w program.
These download as an executable file that is less than 1Mb in size which will run on almost any computer. Its virus free (not that you should trust anyone who says that - make sure you have anti-virus software on your PC that always scans downloaded files, even if they come from us).
Each puzzle comes in three distinct difficulty settings so that you can choose the one that best suits your child (or your own) level of preference. If you are unsure what difficulty level to go for, start with an easy one and move up only if it feels too easy:
- easy is intended for typical 3-6 year olds. There will be around 9 pieces with no piece rotation.
- medium is intended for typical 5-8 year olds. There will be around 30 pieces with no piece rotation
- hard is intended for anyone over 7 who likes a challenge. There will be around 60 pieces and the pieces are rotated as well as shuffled.
Eastern Water Dragon
Even though the Eastern Water Dragon is very common in SE Queensland I still have to stop and look every time I see one. They are such beautiful creatures and we're so lucky to have them around. This one is keeping an eye out for anything he can scavenge from the nearby picnic area at Australia zoo (he is a wild visitor, not a resident). Water Dragons eat just about anything that we do.
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Kookabura
The kookabura is very common. This guy is a resident at Australia zoo but I think he likes it there. He eats any animals he can swallow and sits very still so they don't notice him waiting to pounce.
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Mushrooms
These mushrooms are abundant in the mountainous forest where we live. We don't know what kind they are so we haven't touched them. Some birds eat them but they have different digestive systems to us so that is no guarantee that they aren't poisonous!
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Rough scaled snake
Rough scaled snakes are very common in the creeks and gulleys in South East Queensland but they are not seen very often because they are nocturnal and are usually only active on the warmer nights.
They are good swimmers and can dive under the water to escape inquisitive visitors.
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Shark Warrior
Hmm… not exactly an Australian animal whatever I think. Haydon loved this facepaint, courtesy of Australia zoo.
Face painting and body painting has been with us ever since we lost our body fur. Children delight in the freedom of being seen to be something else for a while.
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Wombat
This wombat is scurrying over the lawn to eat some fruit that has been left out for him. Wombats are usually spotted sleeping. They look cute but they bite hard if you try to touch them.
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Sparky with babies
OK, so I know this is a theme on Australian animals but Sparky was born here, as were her delightful babies who are seen here munching on sweetcorn (a rare treat because its not as good for them as it is for us).
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Playing the puzzles
Once you have downloaded the puzzle you want. Double click on the file to run it. The puzzle will appear as a little parcel in the middle of the puzzle area.
Double click on the parcel to open it and start solving the puzzle.
Left click on a piece and move it around. Left click again to drop it. If it matches a piece near it there will be a distinct click and the two pieces will lock together (you can then move them both just like a single piece).
If you are solving a hard puzzle and need to rotate a piece, click the right mouse button when you are 'holding a piece' (you've left clicked once on it so it can be moved around).
There is more but thats all you need to get started and there is a good help file built into the puzzle program.
If you have any suggestions or comments, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
