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Puzzle of the Week - Puzzle Bobble

Improve Your Aptitude With Free Online Puzzle Games

Puzzle games are a genre of games loved by most hard-core gamers simply because of their ability to challenge a person's ingenuity. Generally, a puzzle is a game has some mystery attached which you have to uncover in order to resolve it. It demands both attention to detail and basic common sense to resolve. Some of the types of puzzles are disentanglement, sliding, logic and word puzzles

Puzzles have their serious side and have been used time and again to resolve real life problems in the mathematical and scienctific research. However, most people play puzzles for fun and to improve our brain capability. It is not uncommon to see people on public transport concentrating on one puzzle or another in order to resolve it. The feeling of accomplishment when a puzzle is completed can make a game addict of most of us. It is also generally believed that those who do puzzles can help stave of certain brain illnesses such as Alzheimers in later life.

In the early days, puzzles were brought to us in the form of board games which you could by from the shops or you could find puzzles at the back of newspapers or better still you could buy a book of puzzles. Nowadays however, you can find all kinds of puzzles to play on the internet. Most of these are fun, entertaining and a learning experience for people of all ages. In fact you are likely to find any type of puzzles and be able to resolve it without using a pen. If it is Sudoku you like you can find a play it online.

Famous puzzles such as Sudoku, jigsaw puzzles, Knight's Tour, Missing Square, Tower Of Hanoi and even Rubik's cube can all be found and played online. One of the advantages of playing online is that, there are now many gaming platforms offering these games for free. You do not need to carry a physical object - be it a book or board game - in order to resolve your favorite puzzle. With just a few mouse clicks you can just as well get the job done.

Playing free puzzle games has now become popular. Instead of going to the nightclub with may cost anywhere from $10.00 and $30, some young kids and teenagers are simply visiting their local cyber-cafes for an adrenaline rush of free PC puzzle games. Another advantage is that, you can meet people from everywhere in world who share similar interests. Some of the favorite online puzzles games are the Cartoon Quizz, Great Mahjong, Master Checkers, Quiz Time With Chron Series, Jig and Koala Checkers.

In conclusion, the internet has changed the way we play games in general and puzzle games in particular. no longer do we need to solve those well loved puzzle games on paper. For game lovers, going online is an exciting adventure and the number of games are increasing all the time.

Sudoku – The Hottest Puzzle Craze Since Rubik’s Cube

Sudoku is the addictive number puzzle that has taken the UK by storm and is now taking over the rest of the world. Since it first appeared in The Times in late 2004 its popularity has grow so that it appears in most UK newspapers and has spread to countries from India to Canada, Australia to South Africa.

So what is Sudoku all about? Sudoku is played on a nine by nine grid which is divided into nine smaller squares. The object of the puzzle is to fill in the digits from 1 to 9 so that it appears only once in each column, row and small three by three square. You are given some of the numbers and you have to use logic and deduction to find the position of the other numbers.

Simple? Well, it depends! A Sudoku puzzle can vary from easy to absolutely fiendish. Certainly the more numbers you are given to start off with, the easier the puzzle, but it also depends on which ones the puzzle setter offers. Traditionally there should be no more than 30 numbers given.

Sudoku first appeared in a US puzzle magazine in the late 1970s, but was then picked up by Japanese publisher Nikoli who dubbed it Su Doku or ‘Solitary Square’ and the puzzle-hungry Japanese loved it. From there it was discovered by The Times and the rest is history.

Sudoku is solved simply by logic; there is no maths required. You may at first be able to fill in a couple of numbers where it appears in every column and row but one. Next you may need to mark up possible candidates in the empty squares until only one possibility remains. Like so many puzzles there will be times when you stare hopelessly and others where the answers jump out at you.

The sudden popularity of Sudoku may be due to many things. It requires just enough brainwork to give a feeling of satisfaction when the puzzle is complete, without taking up huge amounts of time and it requires no special knowledge unlike for instance crosswords, which may require a wide vocabulary.

For hardcore Sudoku fans there are now even more difficult versions. There are sixteen by sixteen square versions which include letters as well as numbers, and a three dimensional version called the Dion Cube.

There are benefits to doing Sudoku puzzles too – the sort of exercise which the brain gets from logic puzzles can help to stop memory decline, make you smarter and even halt the progress of Alzheimer’s disease. Teachers are even giving simple versions of the puzzles to pupils to help develop their logic skills. So next time you see one of those nine by nine grids in your newspaper, give it a go. Your brain might just thank you!

Educational Jigsaw Puzzles, How Educational Are They?

Many companies advertise their products as being educational. How much of this terminology is sales promotion and jargon, and how much is fact?

As an educator for many years, I can say with authority, that there is educational value in all types of jigsaw puzzles. The skills acquired and practiced in completing jigsaw puzzles are a foundational part of successful learning. Doing jigsaw puzzles develops several functions of the brain simultaneously as a child has fun and also learns. Most notably developed in this learning process are the abilities to reason, deduce, analyze, sequence, and develop logical thought and problem solving skills. Physically, eye-hand coordination and spatial awareness are also required to complete a jigsaw puzzle.

Putting these benefits aside, I want to look particularly at the jigsaw puzzles that are labeled “Educational”. These puzzles are designed to teach a specific learning objective. Some examples of these might be a jigsaw puzzle map of the world, or of the solar system. The manufacturers claim that such puzzles will teach a child those specific facts. What educational value in reality do these types of puzzles contain?

Firstly the degree of the educational value of these types of puzzles is dependant on how the puzzles are used in the learning process. For example, let us suppose that the learning objective is to learn about the geography of the United States of America, specifically the position of the individual states. You buy a puzzle picturing all the states and their position in the country, and give it to the child to do. Will the child ace a test on the States? Probably not! I’m sure that some learning will take place, but it will be limited and a few weeks later very little of the learning would be retained. To the child the learning process of doing that puzzle would be similar to any jigsaw puzzle that they do. Their focus on the states and where they fit is limited to the process of completing the puzzle.

In order to maximize the educational value of a jigsaw puzzle, it needs to part of the learning process, but not all of it.

Children have different styles of learning and an advantage of a jigsaw puzzle is that it does involve using more than one type of learning aptitude in the process of completing it. The most obvious learning style for a puzzle is the visual. In doing a puzzle of the USA the child will see the overall shape and also how the various states fit together to complete the whole. Jigsaw puzzles involve both the global (big picture) and analytic (details) aspects of learning. Puzzles are also good for the kinesthetic tendencies of learners. Kinesthetic learners learn best by practical hands on activities. For those with a auditory preference in learning, conversation about the learning and the correlations in the puzzle combined with the overall learning objectives, needs to happen at the same time as the puzzle is being done.

However the greatest educational benefit comes when the jigsaw puzzle is done as part of the overall learning objective. A jigsaw puzzle can be used to introduce a new subject as well as reinforce learning that has already occurred. The educational value increases to the extent that the subject of the puzzle is meaningful to the knowledge the child already has. To the degree that the child can correlate his prior knowledge with the puzzle experience, the more educational value is gained.

The jigsaw puzzle can also create new learning experiences. These experiences can then be developed in many other ways for an overall learning experience. For example, in doing a puzzle on American Geography, famous landmarks located on the puzzle could then be looked up and researched in books or on the Internet. Stories can be read or told about historical events that occurred. The actual size of an American state could be explored by working out how long it would take to travel across by car or train. The learning possibilities are endless.

Some educational puzzles such as ‘Faces and Places’ and ‘The Map of the Solar System’ ,produced by the Great American Puzzle Company come accompanied by a guide book that can be used to get the maximum educational benefit and value from the jigsaw puzzles.

In conclusion, it can be said that all jigsaw puzzles have educational value to some extent. The puzzles that are advertised as ‘educational’ can be of great educational value if introduced, not in isolation, but as part of a specific learning goal that has both relevance and purpose for the child.

Any time spent doing a jigsaw puzzle with your child will make it a more meaningful and memorable experience. Don’t just give your child a present of a jigsaw puzzle-instead give your child an educational experience and a memory that will last a lifetime.

About The Author - Barbara White, of Beyond Better Development http://www.livingbeyondbetter.com