Finding puzzles online

Cole loves puzzles, and it is gratifying to me that he is curious and likes to solve problems. He started with simple ~24 piece jigsaw puzzles, now he occasionally does a 100 piece puzzle or two (if he can find all of the pieces). More recently he has dived into mazes and wordsearch puzzles. The mazes improve hand-eye coordination as he moves his pencil/crayon through the lines, and also works on his analytical skills by making him look ahead to consider the results of a "do I go left or right?" decision. Hopefully this will carry over into real world decisions like "what would happen if I jumped off the roof?" or "I wonder if it is a good idea to make my dad angry one more time?" and help him make wise decisions. We'll see. There are lots of puzzle books out there, but I would start with some simple free ones from the web first to see if there is even any interest. Here and here are sites with several free printable mazes of varying difficulty.

It is interesting that wordsearches are popular at our house, considering that Cole can't read yet. He knows his ABC's of course, and knows that letters are grouped together to make words, and he can even sight read a few words, but he is fanatical about wordsearch puzzles, especially if they contain words that he does not already know. I hope that he is learning a few new words, but more importantly, he is learning how to be methodical while he is searching for the words in the jumble. Assuming the word doesn't jump out of the page at him, I taught him how to start at the top and look for the first letter in the word, when it is found, then look for the second letter all around that first letter, etc... until the entire word is found. The methodical approach to what is otherwise a confusing situation is something that I hope helps him in his life going forward. There are several free wordsearch sites on the web, possibly the most useful is here, where you can enter whatever words you want and make your own puzzle. This way you can tailor the words for your kid's particular interests and level. I made one puzzle with breakfast foods, another with animals, and one with his friends names for example. The possibilities are as endless as your own vocabulary.

Assuming there is interest, try one of these books next:

The Giant Book of Mazes

Jumbo Puzzle Book: Word Searches, Hidden Pictures, and Wild, Wacky Puzzles! (Jumbo Kids' Books)