Puzzles Will Help Advance Your Child
Do your children excel in school? Have they mastered the
skills of their grades? Should they skip a level? If a
child is out-performing other children, should they go
forward in their schooling faster? These questions may be
hard for a parent to answer.
However, according to child development experts, the answer
is usually no. Too often parents are so flattered by their
child's advanced skill level that they want to move them
through school faster. This idea plays more toward the
parent's sense of "raising their child right" than interest
in the child's well-being in the long term. Unfortunately,
quicker is not always better. A child may advance
intellectually, but will remain on the same social level as
his/her same-aged peers. Allowing them to stay in their
grade will increase the opportunity to develop friendships
and gain communication skills that will benefit them
throughout their life. Children understand, communicate,
and interact differently at each stage of development. Only
with time can children polish those skills. Children also
develop different interests as they age. There is a
difference between children in 1st grade and second,
although it might not be evident at first glance. Social
interests also change as children improve physical skill.
Fourth graders want to play with children who are at their
same level of competency in games and activities. If a
child moves through school quickly, they might struggle to
develop friendships. Social interactions play a large part
in a child's self-esteem and development. For these reasons
it is in a child's best interest to stay at their grade
level and instead be challenged with content appropriate
for their age.
Helping a child to advance academically is a good thing, if
it is done appropriately. If you have a first grader who
consistently earns good marks in subtraction you may be
tempted to move on to multiplication. A better choice is to
expand their knowledge within the realm of subtraction.
Numbers do not mean anything until they are applied to real
life, situations, and problems. Advance the thinking within
subtraction. This helps children not only increase their
mathematical skills, but reach a deeper level of
understanding. Multiple-step problems, word problems, and
puzzles challenge different parts of the brain and increase
comprehension. These exercises provokes deeper thought, and
requires children to think in steps, expanding their
understanding of what subtraction is. Because they will
develop life skills they will be more useful as
contributing adults to society. They can do more than just
spit out numbers and facts, they can apply it. This is a
powerful skill.
There are many puzzles that will challenge the advanced
child. One example is Sudoku. There are many levels in the
game and all ages can play. Other puzzles include: riddles,
anagrams, doublets, picture puzzles, chess problems, math
puzzles, and logic puzzles. Is one puzzle better than
another? No. Puzzles should be geared toward the interest
of the child. Tastes, skills and interests form at a
remarkably early age. Use your child's interests to enlarge
and expand their thinking. By cultivating interests and
introducing puzzles your child will be successful
academically and socially.
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Emma Snow works a pragmatic puzzler at the Puzzle Place
http://www.puzzle-place.net and Chess Strategies
http://www.chess-strategies.net leading puzzle portals.
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