Learning with fun.

By admin · Friday, January 16th, 2009

Homeschooling can be a challenge, particularly when it comes to finding resources and activities that will stimulate your childs mental activity. Puzzles can be a great educational asset but are sometimes overlooked by parents as they seek ‘educational’ materials. Puzzles have long been favourite playthings for children and for this reason they are seem as toys rather than objects of skill and learning development.

At Crosswords for Fun we believe that children learn best through play and that puzzles are the key to fun learning.

From an early age children love putting things together and making shapes. Jigsaw puzzles are perfect for pre-readers as they are visual objects that the child needs to look at and assess. They know they have done the puzzle correctly when they can recognise the image at the end. They have a success experience that they will love to repeat. Doesn’t that give you a wonderful opportunity to build on?

Older children can select from a greater range of puzzles, each helping with a different aspect of their development. Word puzzles such as crosswords, wordfinds and anagrams are excellent for developing vocabulary but more importantly, they are fun. Number recognition can be enhanced by simple sudoku puzzles. These are popular with children of all ages at the moment so take full advantage of their enthusiasm. The thrill of the ‘win’ when the puzzles are successfully completed is something that doesn’t come with many other mental acitivities. We know that people who complete an experience successfully are more likely to repeat that experience. This is opening the door wide to learning.

Puzzles can take many forms. Riddles, brain teasers, mazes, image hunts, look-and-find puzzles are all fun for children to play but they have the hidden advantage of being educational too. Careful selection of puzzles can provide great learning opportunities for your child in a format that they are ready and willing to use. Puzzles can be adapted to cover areas of the curriculum that might otherwise be dull. They can bring inspiration to you as a teacher and they can re-energise the bored learner.

Puzzles need to be included in your child’s learning plan so please don’t see them purely as playthings. Use them for the wonderful learning tools that they can be.