Bananagrams Tiles and Book for Kids

Fun Combination of Word Games and Puzzles

Bananagrams, the letter-tile game that is similar to Scrabble, is the better game in my opinion because of its fast pace. Players don't need to wait for their turns to come around. They just keep playing until they run out of tiles.

Games go in and out of favor in my family, so Bananagrams had been gathering dust recently. But then a few days ago, my ten-year-old brought the Banagrams for Kids book home. It has fun word puzzles at several levels of difficulty. This book, along with the tiles, has become our pre-bedtime play for the past few days. We are not about to quit.

I like that it naturally teaches vocabulary, spelling and chunking skills with letters and words--all through play.

Level One Puzzle

Level Four Puzzle

The game-and-book set would make a great Christmas gift if you want to make learning fun for your kids. If you have the letter tiles, you don't need to write in the book.

What kind of word games do you play with your children or students? Share in the comments!

Anti-Pattern Recognition

Math is largely about recognizing and creating patterns. But sometimes the best way to practice something is doing the opposite. Hmmm. Is avoiding a pattern another way of creating a pattern?

Take from a deck of cards all the Aces, Kings, Queens and Jacks.

Arrange them in a 4 × 4 square so that every row, column and diagonal contains one card of each value (A,J,Q,K) and one card of each suit (Heart, Spade, Diamond, Club). source

It's really tough not to have cards of the same value or suit in any row, column, or diagonal, but look at the sense of accomplishment on the faces of these ten-year-olds who stuck with it and solved the puzzle.

50 Fine Motor Skills Activities for Older Children

Fine motor skills are crucial for everyone, but focused practice on them usually ends in preschool or kindergarten. Older children often need a little more work, especially to increase the legibility of their handwriting, but just practicing penmanship is boring. How can working on fine motor skills be fun?

Here are some fun activities to improve fine motor skills. Of course everyone has different different likes and dislikes, so to make sure there are at least a few choices to suit everyones interests, I present fifty fine motor skills activities for older children.

Crafts for Fine Motor Skills
Improve eye-hand coordination with crafts

Origami Blue Bird by Jacque Davis

1. Stringing beads

2. Origami

3. Cloth or paper embroidery

4. Crocheting or knitting

5. Fusion beads (tip: use tweezers for even better fine motor skills practice)

6. Paper cutting (the art form, not the preschool activity)

7. Aqua Beads (like fusion beads, but you spray water on the beads to make them stick together instead of an iron)

8. Basket weaving

9. Sewing

10. Pottery

Games for Fine Motor Skills
Add some competition

Jenga Tournament by Tom Rolfe

11. Operation

12. Jenga

13. Make 'n' Break (see my review)

14. Yahtzee

15. Foosball

16. Rush Hour

17. Marbles

18. Darts

19. Play dough charades

20. Video games (hate to admit it, but they do improve eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills.)

Puzzles to Help Fine Motor Skills
Engage the brain too

Playing with Brain String Advanced

21. Mazes

22. Jigsaw puzzles

23. Rubik's Cube and other similar puzzles

24. Crossword Puzzles

25. Brain String Advanced (see my review)

25 More Fine Motor Skills Activities for Older Children
Something for everyone

26. Enjoy coloring (not just for kids)

27. Practice a musical instrument

Use Chopsticks for fine motor skills

28. Use chopsticks

29. Tie flies

30. Go fishing

31. Try writing Japanese or Chinese characters (see my ideas for learning Japanese)

32. Learn how to tie cool knots

33. Practice typing/keyboarding

34. Play with Wikki Stix (see my Wikki Stix review)

35. Learn sign language

36. Sculpt with clay

37. Do paper mache

38. Make plastic models

39. Play with gears

40. Braid hair

41. Build with Lego

42. Decorate cakes

Magnetic Sculpture by Tamra Hays

43. Make magnetic sculptures

44. Play paper football

45. Make designer lattes and cappuccinos

46. Play with a tilting ball maze

47. Do a connect-the-dots puzzle

48. Learn calligraphy

49. Make a mosaic

50. Write with a fountain pen

Question: Do you have a favorite fine motor skills activity for older children? Please share in the comments!

Brain String Advanced - Fun 3D Spatial Reasoning Puzzle

Whoever thought untying knots could be so much fun? Improve your sense of spatial relations with Brain String Advanced, a fun puzzle that, like all good logic games, is strangely addictive. It's a tetrakaidecahedron (14-sided geometric solid) with colored elastic cords running through the middle of it. The goal is to get cords of the same color each surface without any tangles in the middle. As you can see in the video below, it isn't easy.

This puzzle is a great tool to improve spatial reasoning, plan several steps ahead, and think through what unintended consequences an action may trigger. It can be solved by lots of trial and error, but in the process, you begin to see more and more steps ahead in untangling the knot.

My ten-year-old son received this puzzle from his grandparents, and we have been fighting over it ever since.

Brain String Advanced - Solved!