Puzzles and Kids - a new forum on Conceptis website

Thursday, April 1, 2004

Are you using puzzles with kids, at home or at school? You can now share your knowledge, experience and ideas with other puzzlers, teachers and parents in the Conceptis Puzzles and Kids forum.

The new forum, launched in Conceptispuzzles.com website on February 29, is moderated by Mr. Mike Sharp - a former IBM programmer who is now in a second career as an elementary school teacher, and Mrs. Polly Carter - a retired teacher and computer consultant.

“I've been a teacher now for 8 years, in grades 3, 4, and 5 and have been using puzzles with my students with varying levels of success” says Sharp. “Most recently I introduced Link-a-Pix puzzles to some of my fourth grade students. They absolutely loved them. However, most of the free weekly puzzles were a bit too large and overwhelming for their little spirits. So where is the happy medium that kids and puzzles are exactly right for each other?” The new Puzzles and Kids forum will therefore become a place where we can all exchange ideas and strategies for making our kids better puzzle solvers, while making the puzzles more suitable for our kids.

Polly Carter has been a teacher on many levels for 46 years. For the last 12 years, Carter has taught graduate in-service computer courses for teachers involving the use of computer-created puzzles in the classroom. “My teacher-students have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the educational values of appropriate puzzles” says Carter. “I expect to teach a course in the Fall entitled ‘Applications of Picture-Forming Logic Puzzles for Classroom Use.’ I welcome discussion of all aspects of using these puzzles to enhance classroom learning.”

Not just the picture-forming logic type from Conceptis

Topics in the new Puzzles and Kids forum may be anything about any kind of puzzles, not just the picture-forming logic type from Conceptis. For example, this forum can be used to discuss what puzzles would be age-appropriate for different children (size, kind, fonts, tools used, etc.), how can we make modifications to puzzles to make them easier / harder to solve, are puzzles worthwhile activities for kids in school, and more. Here is an example of a post made by Monroe Harden from USA, on 01 Mar 2004:

“I do think puzzles are a valuable learning tool. Much of real life can be seen as a puzzle of sorts, and knowing how to logically define problems, seek the facts, sort the wheat from the chaff to define the relevant facts, analyze them, develop a plan of attack then implement that plan will be very useful at all ages.”

Our members are all invited to start new topics or contribute to any of the current Puzzles and Kids discussions: Welcome to the Puzzles and Kids Forum, Modifying Puzzles, Which is better for young kids? Kids' Puzzles? or Jigsaw Puzzle.