Guest Post - Our Puzzle Basket

 


A puzzle basket is a great way to keep the kids entertained during the holidays! Read this guest blog post for some ideas on how to create your own...

Out and About with our Scavenger Hunts


Creating a Puzzle Basket

By Shelly

We are loving the stunning warm summer weather but as much as the kids enjoy being outdoors they also need breaks from the garden and insect hunting. One of our ways to prevent the garden breaks from becoming screen time is our puzzle folder / puzzle basket. I admit I use the word puzzle a bit loosely here!

Why not keep a puzzle basket, puzzle folder or puzzle drawer ready?
Why not keep a puzzle basket, puzzle folder or puzzle drawer ready?

At the moment we have the items in a drawer but we originally had them in a folder like the one in the photo – I found the drawer a better option as I like to add dice and bean bags for some games. And clip boards and write and wipe pockets also fit nicely into the drawer.

So I thought I would share a few ideas of what you could include in a puzzle basket.

1. Sudoku

We are huge Sudoku fans – and any Sudoku version works for us. We do the straightforward number sudoku and the colour sudoku and the word suduko. The colour sudoku are perfect for younger kids or kids who have never tried Sudoku before, and if you add some coloured stickers it ups the fun factor. All versions are popular with my two kids.

Having a go at colour sudoku with stickers
Having a go at colour sudoku with stickers

The kids love using stickers on the colour sudoku puzzles
The kids love using stickers on the colour sudoku puzzles

2. Tangrams

My son loved doing tangrams. He enjoyed the challenge of working out how to order the shapes to fit into the template. If you have multiple kids or think the kids might want to do these over and over I would suggest printing them on card – I didn’t and I really wish I had.

Trying a dog tangram with template
Trying a dog tangram with template

More tangram puzzles
Trying more tangram puzzles

3. Spelling Jigsaws

These spelling jigsaws are perfect for younger kids.  My son’s favourite were the animal word jigsaws. We kept each puzzle in a separate zip lock bag.

Whale word puzzle
Whale word puzzle

4. Boxes Game

We only recently discovered this boxes game and it has been a really great strategy game for the kids. We keep our page in a write-and-wipe pocket so we can use it over and over again for multiple games without having to reprint the page a hundred times. We have also found it helps if each child uses a different coloured pen (that way you can easily see each child’s moves).

Playing football boxes
Playing football boxes

5. Word Puzzles

These are probably the sections that I most often reprint pages from but they are so worth it: word searches, crosswords and word scrambles. I always have a stack printed out and recently added them to the puzzle basket.  

6. Scavenger Hunts

I wrote a post about using scavenger hunts that you might find useful. Yes I know it's not really a puzzle as such, but scavenger hunts can be such fun and can be used both indoors and outdoors.  I suggest leaving some clip boards for the scavenger hunt pages as that makes it a lot easier for the kids to walk around and mark off the items as they find them.

And don’t forget to add some dice and maybe even a pack a cards. There are so many games that the kids can play with a simple dice – if you want some dice game ideas have a look at the dice game section on the website.

Out and About with our Scavenger Hunts

This is a guest post from Shelly. Shelly is a home educating parent of two children aged 6 and 9. She blogs at ofamily learning together where she shares ideas on the different learning activities that they do including lots of hand-on Maths, arts and crafts and anything else that is part of their home educating lifestyle.

You can find more guest posts by Shelly, and a list of all our guest posts, here.

 

Guest Post - Our Puzzle Basket
Wednesday, 25th July 2018

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