Review – Begin Again Toys Wooden Dinosaur A-Z Puzzle

I adore wooden toys. I love how resilient they are.  They don’t fade or break, they have a little bit of substance when you hold them in your hand, and they last forever! By forever, I’m talking generations. My grandma has a freestanding wooden elephant puzzle in her house with about four pieces. (It’s white and was a white elephant gift.  Ha!) Growing up my cousins and I loved playing with it. It was always out around the house, and as I grew older the silly elephant stuck around. The only up keep it needed was a paint job every now and then because the white started to look a bit dingy with so many little hands carrying it around, but it never broke and it never grew old. Twenty years later my grandma still has that puzzle!
I first saw BeginAgain Toys as part of a Zulily promotion for wooden toys. Since I already love the idea of wooden toys I was enthralled with the whole list of toys but I was absolutely mesmerized by the BeginAgain Puzzles. I was hit with a wave of nostalgia seeing the free standing animal family puzzles (they even have an elephant!) and pulled in by the beauty and simplicity of their designs. The patterns on their puzzles are unique, the painting is colorful, and they’ve made them even better learning tools by having numbered or lettered pieces on some of the puzzles (uppercase and lowercase depending on the side of the puzzle you’re looking at).
Plus I can really get behind the BeginAgain company and their “Workshop Rules” aka moto for toys:
  1. Kids are the true noisemakers!
    – No batteries, no electronics, ever!
  2. Share your ideas, then build
    – Collaborate, share, and build in partnership.
  3. Don’t leave a mess
    – Take OIL out of play, use plant based materials whenever possible and always reduce, recycle, and seek improvement.
  4. Great products have greater purpose
    – BeginAgain gives 1% to the community.
These puzzles are fairly expensive ranging from $10-$30, but my grandmas puzzles had lasted through multiple generations and these puzzles looked like they were built for the same kind of multi generational love.  To me it seemed worth the price.  And so we got the wooden alphabet dinosaur puzzle.  A puzzle I knew was a little advanced for my young son, but it seemed like a puzzle he could grow into and one that I could use as a teaching tool in a lot of different ways as he did. 
The puzzle came with a nice wooden tray, great for storing the pieces in when the puzzle if finished or still in pieces (though I wish the tray had a lid…). One side of the puzzle has capital letters the other side has lowercase letters so your child has a chance to learn both, and the puzzle can be built face up, face down or standing on it’s feet.
The puzzle is well crafted and the pieces are solid and easy to put together. I was a little surprised by the difficulty of the puzzle, I thought it would be a breeze since it’s more or less alphabetized, but I think I relied on the alphabet a little too much and it took me a try or two to piece the thing back together. I thought it was surprisingly fun to piece together and I really love how big the pieces are the 3D feel of the puzzle.
My son LOVED that this was a dinosaur! But the actual puzzle part was still a bit beyond his ability. While he wasn’t able to build the puzzle, but he did get a good chance to work on his fine motor skills as I helped him piece little bits of it together and he had a blast identifying the different letters on the pieces and sorting the colored shapes into piles. And the great thing about puzzle is, it’s wood, it’s not going to fade or break and we can play with it all over again when he’s ready to start piecing the whole thing together.

I guess I really got this puzzle in part for me.  On their website they have a whole range of puzzle, many with much more simple pieces (like the cat puzzle pictured above). I have a feeling that my two year old would have had a lot more success piecing those together.. and possibly also enjoyed being able to play with the individual cat pieces in the process.

They have a butterfly that is a tint but more intense than my dinosaur puzzle suggested for 5 year olds, a food assortment puzzle (Alphabites) that is suggest for 3+, and adorable wooden block puzzles for 18+ months. The Alphabites Puzzle, has pieces shaped like a bunch of food, and when all the pieces are removed from the tray, the tray is shaped like a serving tray, complete with plate and napkin and the flip side of the tray is shaved like a stove top! It sounds like some fantastic, dual use play food to me.



BeginAgain Puzzle Pros: 
  • Super Sturdy Puzzle
  • Duel Use Puzzle 
  • Brightly Colored 
  • Made Sustainably 
  • Teaching Tool
  • Easy to Hold Pieces 

BeginAgain Puzzle Cons: 
  • Expensive
  • The storage box doesn’t have a lid
Anyway.  I’ve been really happy with my puzzle.  It’s as awesome as it looks and it’s fun to build.  I really think these puzzles and this company is worth checking out! See more BeginAgain Toys on: 

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest

We love puzzles at our house, if you’ve come across any great or unique ones please tell me more about them in the comments section,

Top 5 Reasons to Love BeginAgain Toys – {GIVEAWAY ENDED}

“Kids already have the best job in the world, to play. It’s full time work and the way they play shapes the way they grow. The toy box is the child’s first tool box. Toys are meant to inspire kids to draw, build, explore, tell stories, play games, and ultimately save the day.” – Benjamin Barlowe, Inventor and Science Digest, 1959. (Inspiration behind BeginAgain Toys)

BeginAgain Toys is a fantastic company that has brought toys back to the basics.  Their toys don’t light up or make noise, but they are creative, fun, educational and totally worth checking out!  So here is my Top 5 Reasons to Love BeginAgain Toys.

**This post may contain affiliate links which support Top 5 Friday when you purchase through them, yet don’t cost you anything extra. See Disclosure Policy for more information.**  

  1. BeginAgain Toys Encourage Creativity

    No noisemakers, no batteries, just toys that can be used in a bunch of different way. For instance the animal family puzzles are also great for tracing/drawing, the alphabites puzzle doubles as play food complete with a storage tray that doubles as a stove top on one side and a table setting on the other, balance boat shapes doubles as both a puzzle and a balancing game.

  2. BeginAgain Toys are Educational

    Not only do the toys have multiple uses for playing, but they’ve also got multiple uses for teaching. The wooden puzzles have a range of educational themes such as shapes, number and letters, they can also be used to teach colors or to color sort, and they enhance fine motor skills and spatial relations as the puzzle is pieced together. Puzzles like the Dinosaur A to Z puzzle have one side with capital letters and the other side with lower case letters, and each piece is brightly colored.

    The puzzles also come with varying degrees of difficulty. They have a butterfly that is suggested for 5+, an animal assortment puzzle that is suggest for 3+, and adorable wooden block puzzles for 18+ months.

  3. BeginAgain Toys are Beautiful

    I think I first saw BeginAgain Toys as part of a promotion for wooden toys, since I already love the idea of wooden toys I was pretty enthralled with the list but I was absolutely mesmerized by the BeginAgain Puzzles. I was pulled in by the beauty and simplicity of their designs. The patterns on their puzzles are unique, the painting is colorful, and they’ve made them great learning tools. Each of their puzzles are works of art and it makes them not only fun to put together, but fun to have as a display piece.
     

  4. BeginAgain Toys are Built to Last

    Have I mentioned before how much I love wooden toys? I think they are amazing! You can play with them forever and they never break or get old. In fact my grandma had a wooden elephant puzzle that me and all my cousins played with as children and twenty years later she’s still got that puzzle in nearly perfect condition! BeginAgain has so many fantastic toys made from wood/rubber that are meant to be played with forever! You wont have to worry about a toddler breaking them, batteries running out, of pieces snapping off.
     

  5. BeginAgain Toys is an Eco Responsible Company

    BeginAgain Toys work hard to take the oil out of play and instead use plant based material whenever possible (natural rubber, natural cotton, sustainably harvested wood, wheat starch plastic and bamboo). They give 1% back to the community and have a strong emphasis on reducing waste and recycling. Not bad, eh?

Read my full review of the Dinosaur A-Z puzzle on DandyGiveaway.

Giveaway Hosted by: Dandy Giveaway
Co-Hosted by: Top 5 Friday
Sponsored by: BegainAgain Toys

Check out BeginAgain Toys and enter to win your very own Dinosaur A-Z Puzzle! 

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest

This giveaway will run from Oct 3 – Oct 17, and will end at midnight EDT. It is open to US residents, ages 18+.  Entries will be verified, winner will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to respond and claim prize or another winner will be chosen. For questions or concerns email DandyBritt@gmail.com – also consider adding that email address to your safe list, as winning email notification will be sent from it.

Disclosure: Brittney from Dandy Giveaway received products from this sponsor to facilitate her review, no other compensation was received. Participating bloggers are not responsible for prize fulfillment. This giveaway is in no way associated with social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Blogger Opp – Begin Again Dinosaur Puzzle

This opp is limited to 10 blogs. Event runs Oct 3 – Oct 17 (2 weeks)

The 26 piece friendly Stegosaurus teaches letters with fun puzzle play. One side of this puzzle teaches upper case letters and the flip side teaches the lower case. This brightly stained puzzle is carefully crafted from plantation grown rubber wood and is sure to bring hours of fun and learning to your little preschooler. The Dinosaur A to Z Puzzle comes with an easy clean up storage box made from Beech wood. 1 winner with receive a Dinosaur A to Z Puzzle.

You can participate in this event for FREE in exchange for an announcement post OR you can pay a $10 fee to be listed. If you select any payment options please send the fee to star45678@hotmail.com via PayPal (as a gift). Promoting bloggers may enter this giveaway. Post must be live by Oct 5th at the latest. HTML will be sent out by Oct 2nd. Open to US residents ages 18+. *Family-friendly blogs only please!*

NOTE: Free links will not be added until your link is confirmed after the event HTML code is sent out. Thanks!

This event is full.  If you’re looking for another great blogger opp, check out the Shutter Hugger Opp, which is still accepting bloggers – http://topfivefriday.blogspot.com/2014/09/blogger-opp-shutter-huggers.html