Whimsy Animals: Elephant Seal puzzle
My three-year-old daughter loves puzzles, particularly the chunky wooden puzzles with pieces shaped like parts of the picture (as opposed to jigsaw pieces, which she has more difficulty with). So it’s no surprise that one of her favorite iPhone games is a puzzle game. Whimsy Animals has sixty simple puzzles which then reveal photographs of animals accompanied by animal sounds. My daughter has put together all of the puzzles multiple times and hasn’t tired of it yet.
It is a bit easier than a real puzzle: the pieces don’t rotate so it’s a matter of sliding them into the proper place. But for even younger kids, you can turn the difficulty level down. At the easiest setting, you can just nudge each piece and it will slide into the proper place on its own. The middle setting requires you to get each piece touching its location and then it slides the rest of the way, and then the hardest setting is more like an actual puzzle.
My six-year-old doesn’t play nearly as much, so despite their claim of “all ages” I’d say this is really something for preschoolers. Still, the animal photos are fun to look at even if the puzzles don’t present much of a challenge for older kids and adults. I was given a download code to try out the program, but as much as my daughter has played with it I think the $1.99 is certainly reasonable.
The Whimsy Puzzles website has a video preview of the app, and you can purchase it from the iTunes store.
Wired: Simple puzzle with animal photos and sounds; entertains my preschooler for hours.
Tired: Not great for older kids.
