It's been a while since I sat down to do a puzzle. But when my oldest daughter received a wooden jigsaw puzzle as a birthday gift, my puzzling instincts kicked in - I thought a wooden puzzle sounded really cool.

So I sat down with a cleared table and I started putting it together.

This puzzle was neat - it's by a company called 'Little Liberty', whose catchphrase is "Classic Wooden Jigsaws For Children".

There's a nice classic feel to the puzzle too - not like the cardboard puzzles I'm used to. I've never even seen a wooden puzzle before.

I don't know if this is just a fun twist for kids, or part and parcel of a wooden puzzle, but there were pieces of all shapes and sizes in this puzzle, as you can see:

I especially liked the animal shapes - in addition to what's pictured there was also a butterfly and a couple of flowers.

For a puzzle aimed at 6-to-9-year-olds (95 pieces), I was surprised at how challenging the puzzle was. It took me about a half-hour, maybe a little more, to finish it...there was a lot of background, which made it hard, and a lot of the piece connections (as you may be able to tell from those pieces shown above) had weird angles that you're not really used to with a puzzle.

But I did it. I finished my first-ever wooden puzzle. And it was challenging enough that I might even do it again.

Maybe next time I'll even let my daughter join me.