If you are a lover of jigsaw puzzles or traditional style wooden toys you can’t fail to covert the Wentworth wooden puzzle collection. There is something for little ones aged 3 all the way to challenging puzzles for grownups in intricate designs and shapes. Loose yourself in the puzzle theme from the design to the wooden pieces themselves. These are puzzles with a twist you’ll like. We have been putting the Noah’s Ark 50 piece puzzle for children to the test and discovering the unique whimsy pieces for ourselves, not to mention enjoying the challenge just as much as the kids! Read on to discover more and for your chance to win your own puzzle box.
The Puzzle image
Packed with colour and created in a cartoon style this 50 piece puzzle is perfect for children. Who can resist a rainbow of butterflies or a sea filled with every sea creature you could think of and that’s before your board the ark! On board the ark cheeky cartoon style mammals lean out of the boat with Noah and his family at the centre. The design by Peter Barrett is cleverly illustrated and a delight to create with plenty of learning opportunities for children not only in the Noah Ark story but in animal identification.
The puzzle pieces
Not only does the design draw the creator in, but the pieces themselves have a unique whimsy factor being carved by laser jet into animal shapes. See the puzzle design on one side and the animal features on the reverse. A clever touch we love.
What we liked
- The animal shaped pieces
- The quality and feel of the puzzle pieces
- A drawstring bag to keep your Wentworth wooden puzzle safe.
- The wood is from sustainably managed forests and the box from recycled materials.
Our concern
- The puzzle could be a challenge for the recommended age group but if worked on with a little prompting and encouragement from an older sibling or grown up it is both manageable and fun to make.
See how we created our Wentworth wooden puzzle : Noah’s Ark
Need to know
| Retail Price | £25 |
| Stockists | Wentworth online shop |
| Contents | 50 piece puzzle shapes, draw string bag |
Dimension of finished puzzle |
360 x 250mm |
| Illustrator | Peter Barret |
| Age Range | Age 3 – 6 |
There are lots of other puzzles in the children’s range including dinosaur and fairy themes or even a personalised photo puzzle, you are sure to find one there just right for your child’s interest.
Win your Noah’s Ark Wooden Puzzle with Wentworth and Coombe Mill
If you fancy starting your Wentworth puzzle collection with this colourful Noah’s Ark design just follow the instructions below for a chance to win. Good luck to all taking part.
Disclosure
We were sent our puzzle for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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It isn’t very often I go out to snap a few photos and share without any editing, but my photos this week are indeed unedited. Not a tweak, a highlight or a boost, just raw photos. Coombe Mill is set on the edge of an area of outstanding natural beauty. Our valley is wooded and lush and our 12 properties are spread out, set back along the riverbank. I find it hard to convey the feeling of space and beauty here, the sense of calm and rest and of being at one with nature. However on a sunny May morning Coombe Mill takes some beating for shear natural beauty. Anything I tried to add to these photos of our relaxing gardens just detracted from the original, so in keeping with the saying “why change what isn’t broke” I have left them all unedited. The pictures still don’t do justice to the beauty of the season here, or convey the amount of space there is to explore, but hopefully it gives you an idea.
All our Lodges face down to the river Camel. The field gardens offer plenty of open space perfect for picnics and play or just relaxing and listening to the river.
Polzeath lodge is our newest holiday lodge with it’s own fenced garden leading to the wide open field.
Across the lane Coombe Mill continues. This photo is the private front garden to Water Mill with the lane and more cottage gardens beyond.
A sweeping drive leads from the lane to Tree Roots, Honeysuckle and Willow Cottages with relaxing gardens either side.
Space and facilities on the cottage lawns leading to the river.
We still have a few summer spaces if you fancy loosing yourself in our relaxing gardens this summer, experiencing our enchanting river and learning all about the farm.
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Welcome to Country Kids from Coombe Mill
Country Kids is the original outdoor family fun linky designed to:
“Encourage family fun outdoors, in an age where technology and screens are such a draw to a sedentary indoor life”
Welcome back if you are a regular to Country Kids and if you are new please join in. You will find plenty of inspiration for enjoying outdoor space and please do share your own adventures. We support the National Trust #50 things along with all other ideas for family fun outside.
Hooray for Half Term
It feels like a long time since the Easter holidays. Two of my own boys are in the thick of GCSE’s and A Levels right now and glad of the week off for revision. We are giving them a little peace and quiet and taking the triplets over to see family in Athens this week for a few days whilst the older boys and Amber run the farm. Whatever your plans for the week ahead I hope it includes some outdoor fun and as always please come and join me with your adventures on the link up below.
Guidelines for Joining in:
- Post must be predominantly outdoors such as in the garden, the park, the woods or the beach with crafting, learning, exploring or playing.
- Despite the title, both countryside and urban outdoor adventures are welcome.
- Unheated covered areas like a barn or tent count as outdoors.
- Please comment on my host post and a minimum of 3 others of your choice.
- If you use #CountryKids when commenting the post owner will know where your found them and hopefully come back to visit your post.
- Please take my badge, without it you won’t be considered for winning the lovely Rockfish Wellies.
- Linked posts should be written and made live within the last 2 months.
- I understand sometimes you need to do catch up posts and write about something from a couple of months ago but the publish date should be within 2 months.
- There is no restriction on the number of posts that can be linked up, however please be sensible, if you have more than 3 consider linking over a few weeks.
My top commenters from last week:
- Michelle from Mummy from the Heart, Mary from Over 40 and a Mum to One & Helena from Queen of Collage who commented on 10 posts.
- Joy from Pink Oddy who commented on 9 posts.
- Karen from Two Tiny Hands who commented on 7 posts.
Thanks to all of you who joined in last week and for the comments you took time to leave, we had a week with no link dumpers so a pat on the back to you all!
Rockfish kindly sponsor Country Kids
Win a pair of wellies from Rockfish Monthly
I am delighted to have Rockfish as the sponsor for Country Kids. Rockfish are a local Cornish company specializing in stylish quality wellingtons for all the family. We have been offering their country wellies in our borrow room here on the farm for over a year and they are always popular for their style, comfort and durability.
Each week my favourite #CountryKids posts, which include my badge or a link back here, will be considered for a free pair of Rockfish Wellies at the end of the month; the perfect way to enjoy the outdoors whatever the weather throws your way. Keep your posts coming, it could be you winning next!
For more more information on the Rockfish Wellies on offer with us and terms and conditions to win see here.
Favourite posts from last week added to the shortlist for winning the May Rockfish Wellies:
Top commenters, Mummy from the Heart, Over 40 Mum to One and Queen of Collage
I love the steam fairground rides from Kippers and Curtains
I’m not a camper, but in the beautiful Cornish May weather The Little Pip makes it look idyllic
Country Kids Communities
I’d love you to join me:
Pin on the Pinterest Board Just ask for an invite to pin and include Country Kids on your pins for me to stop by on your boards too.
Follow Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays’s board Country Kids from Coombe Mill on Pinterest.
Join the growing Country Kids Instagram Community with #CountryKidsFun.
I'll like and comment on all and share my favourites from the week with a tag on a Friday on Instagram and Twitter. With over 9660 posts this community is flourishing with outdoors photos.
My featured photos from the week came from @mammasschool @wendy_naptimenatterblog @waytoomuchluggage and @angelabbarker . Please do check out these lovely folk on Instagram if you are not already following.
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In early May the farm is teaming with wild garlic. Big green leaves, white bulb roots and pretty white flowers. I was keen to run an activity hour that would take us out on a nature appreciation tour searching for garlic and making something with it. Last year we made some delicious cheese and wild garlic scones, this year I thought we’d try my super easy pasta sauce. Since I knew it was very quick and easy to make I had a couple of extra jobs on the farm for us to do with the animals, and then nature obliged with a few more so that we totally overran our time, but no one was clock watching and tummies had been filled.
Herb Identification
We began with a little sensory game. The children each sniffed a little wild garlic, rosemary and mint and tried to say what they reminded them of. Some of the things were so funny with the likes of strawberries and honey, but I was really impressed with the little girl who said roast potatoes on smelling the rosemary. I checked with her Mum and like me she adds rosemary to roasties!
Nature Appreciation through making Wild Garlic Pasta Sauce
Having seen and smelt wild garlic we watched my little video on how to make wild garlic pasta sauce.
Then we set off onto the farm to look for some wild garlic while Clio cooked a pan of pasta for us.
On our return we saved a little garlic to add to our recipe cards which were laminated for the children to take home then washed hands and garlic before setting to work on our sauce. The children helped me carefully chop the wild garlic including the leaves, flowers and bulbs and place them in the food mixer. Then we added olive oil and seasoning, replaced the lid and whizzed it all up.
Clio brought us out the steaming pasta and we put some into bowls with the sauce and grated cheese for the children to try. Despite the parents reservations on whether they would taste it, every child gave it a go and most really enjoyed it. Curiosity had the better of the parents and they all tried some too!
Nature appreciation with animals.
When everyone had finished their pasta we had a few farm jobs to do.
Our first job was to release an emperor moth. I had found her sunbathing on our doorstep just before activity hour and she was sure to be trodden on merging into the paving stones so I brought her along for the children to see. Carefully we freed her onto the grass next to a bush.
Our remaining jobs needed a walk back to the farm. Lambo needed her bottle, I had carrots ready as edible toys for the rabbits and Farmer Nick had made a sign we needed to put up to protect the nesting wild duck sitting on her eggs. We headed off over the fields with everything we needed and stopped first to add the sign and show the children the duck. She was pretty well camouflaged and we only found her in the first place when farmer Nick nearly mowed her down cutting the lawns!
Over the bridge and a hungry lamb was waiting for us.
Jessica, Sophie and Peanut the chicks had come off the heat lamp and we moved them into a much larger home where they could roam and see the world whilst being fox proof and dry.
Finally we took our sliced carrots into the bunnies and hung them from their toy. Grabbing their treat keeps the bunnies entertained and full up!
No wonder the time ran away, there is so much to do on the farm at this time of year and it’s lovely to have the children wanting to help. You might have thought they would be worn out after all their nature appreciation and chores, but there was still time for a play in the ford on the way back. It just goes to show that nature’s playground is pretty cool too!
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Here at Coombe Mill we make so secret of loving games and educational toys that encourage children to think and learn whilst having fun away from technology. The lovely range of board games and puzzles from Orchard Toys delivers against these aims every time. Quality wipe clean recycled board at affordable prices are turned into simple but effective learning tools for younger children. We were invited to try out one of the new games for 2018: One Dog, Ten Frogs. The name had me taken from the start; an educational counting game with animals was going to be a winner here. Read on to discover more about the game and how you could win one to enjoy with your little ones.
Jumbo Cards for Matching and Sequencing
Essentially this is a giant game of pairs. Jumbo circular cards have numbers with the corresponding number of animals shown. Turn the cards and match the animals and numbers. When you are done make a long line in number order. It is as simple as that, yet gives so many opportunities to discuss and explain both number values and the cute animals depicted.
At just £10 we think this would make an excellent birthday present for friends and family members or perhaps a treat in preparation for starting school or nursery.
See just how easy the game is to play in our little video
Need to know
| Suitable for | Age 3+ |
| Certified | Teacher Tested |
| RSP | £10.00 |
| Contents | 15 jumbo pairs of cards Number reference board in 2 jigsaw pieces Instructions leaflet |
| Learning benefits | Matching and Memory skills Counting skills Animal identification Encourages collaborative play |
| Available from | Orchard Toys, Amazon, Smyths Toys. |
Win your game of One Dog, Ten frogs with Orchard Toys and Coombe Mill
To be in with a chance of winning this lovely educational game for your children just follow the instructions below. Good luck to all taking part.
Disclosure
We were sent our game of One Dog, Ten Frogs for the purpose of this review, however all thoughts and opinions are my own.
