Explore the World

This is a great geography set! The foam is good quality and the pieces fit snug without having to be forced in. I like the two sided flags. For the US, they have the state capital on one side and an interesting fact on the other. For all of the other countries, they have the flag on one side and capital on the other. It did take a while to assemble all of the flags and stick the stickers on, but it was a fun review before we got started. We also had 4 extra blank flags. I'd say my only criticism of this set is that some areas could have been more in depth. For example, I feel like United Kingdom could have easily been divided up into it's individual parts. England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are not represented at all. The same goes for some southeastern Europe countries. Additionally, I feel like European flags were skimpy. A lot of the countries flags were not represented and there was plenty of room to add them in (see picture). Overall, it's a great set and we have enjoyed completing it as a family.

Very durable full of fun hours of play.

I bought this 5 years ago for homeschool. It was perfect for social studies because of the multi sensory aspect. The flags! They was quite fun too for the capitols. Even now, it gets taken out regularly just for fun. Definitely one of my better purchases.

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.

My son absolutely loves this puzzle, he plays with it every day. The only slightly complaint is that the countries that are combined together are very small and not really true shapes. It would be very neat to have separate larger continents like how Europe was done. A different puzzle for each continent would be excellent. Overall seems to be a good quality and the foam is holding up well to his daily play.

I love this for my kids! Added this to their homeschooling activities and they enjoy it! Great for keeping busy while learning!

This puzzle is a huge hit in our home. The concept is awesome: the foam with the flags is brilliant (no smell in our box, like other reviewers mentioned and the stickers were perfect, no trouble at all placing them on flags) but we have some issues with the details on the maps. My son is studying the countries of the world, and he has noticed that several countries are missing from the puzzle, several countries are missing flags, and he's wondered why only Europe has a separate detail puzzle, but Central America and Africa don't. Very Euro-centric. The absence of Israel makes me wonder. Central America: They are missing 21 countries from Central America, the Caribbean, and from the northern edge of South America. These are represented by a star pattern, or not at all for some of the islands. Trinidad and Tobago is absolutely it's own country, to name one. It isn't even on the map. Africa: The same can be said for Africa. Missing countries, no flags. The Middle East is also missing random countries. Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Georgia, Armenia, to name few. They could have been drawn in, instead Iraq and Syria take up the space of Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan. They don't need extra pieces, just draw them on the map! They don't have flags for so many countries: Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, Uganda, Ethiopia, Conga, Lithuania, Latvia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Yemen, Oman, and so many more (over half of the Africa's countries). Like I said above, this puzzle is a huge hit. I'd recommend anyone buy it... unless you're specifically studying Central America, western Africa, or the Middle East (or theSouth Pacific Islands, for that matter)

This is the second product I have purchased from Mapology. Both of the products have exceeded my expectations. I was concerned that a foam map would be difficult for my grandchildren to assemble but they had no problem (ages 4&5). They quickly learn the names of all the countries and were excited to add the flags to the countries. I would definitely recommend this product.

It is very good quality and helps in gaining knowledge about the world.

Nice puzzle to start kids out either world map

Well designed and my son enjoys putting these pieces together !

Excellent..my son liked it.,👍👌

Bought as a kindergarten graduation gift. Great gift.