I’ve always enjoyed doing puzzles and it’s something that over the years I haven’t had much time for. Jigsaw puzzles have been limited to wooden ones with the children. After about the age of six the boys have lost interest in doing jigsaws too which I think is a shame. So when I was asked if we would like to try one of Ravensburger’s What If puzzles I thought it would provide the perfect opportunity to do something together and also reignite the boy’s interest in puzzles.
We were sent The Racehorse which is the 8th puzzle in the What If range. With 1000 pieces I anticipated it would keep us busy for a couple of hours. But this is no ordinary jigsaw, the image on the box shows you Jim buying a Racehorse after having a windfall. He is sure that Contraflow breed by Patrick Wheeler-Deeley’s stable will make him a fortune. Does Contraflow have a special talent? the picture on the puzzle shows what happened next.
It means that you don’t have an image to follow when completing the jigsaw. initially I wasn’t sure about it but if you follow the rules of jigsaw which for me means finding all the pieces which have an edge and putting them together. Then working my way around the centre of the puzzle. As there is an element of guess-work over the image so it’s not actually straight forward.
Initially I made a start on the jigsaw and then after twenty minutes Rowan and Trystan came over to see what I was doing. Trystan then decided he wanted to help and proved to be quite good at spotting where the pieces went as we went along. Between us we decided to try and separate the pieces into different colours in the hope it would help us fix some one them together correctly.
I had decided to lay the jigsaw out on our wooden storage table which is in our playroom, mainly because I felt it would enable me to leave it out and go back to the jigsaw throughout the weekend. I’d forgotten how addictive jigsaw can be and I found myself spending almost an hour at a time both on my own and with Trystan working on it. I also found being able to go away and do something else for a while before returning to it really helped me to complete the jigsaw. I’m not going to share the finished image with you as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who wants to give it ago. By the end of the weekend we had almost completed the puzzle and I am so determined to complete it, there is only one small section left to complete. Today I have carefully transferred the puzzle to a puzzle board so that I can finish it later in the week when I have a chance. It also means while I’m working this week I do not need to worry about the little ones disturbing the pieces or any of the pieces being misplaced.
Trystan and I have really enjoyed working on the puzzle over the weekend and It would be lovely if it could become something we do together from time to time. Ravensburger’s What if? The Racehorse retails at £11.99 and can be bought via amazon here I think we will certainly buy another one of the What If series as it’s a great twist on the classic Jigsaw.
Disclaimer: We were sent the Ravensburger What If? puzzle for the purpose of this post however the content is 100% my own.