unplugged scaffolding

Because the birthday of one of the children is comming up, I've searched and found a few books and games that you might like. Usually I give something for their birthday that is a developmental challenge for the child at that time.
The books are in Dutch but the games might be interesting. I'm going to give a link to a dutch site and try to find an English counterpart. Thinkfun, Dutch site that delivers pretty good games and a site that describes abstract games are among my favorite. Wooden puzzle challenges can be difficult even for very bright children. That's good!

I love difficult.

Puzzle sunday (8)

Because I'm busy to find a house in a certain region, I use maps a lot these days. So I link a map puzzle today. This jigsaw has countries as pieces of the puzzle.

Puzzle Sunday (7)

This week was the international mathematics competition in the Netherlands to which 4 million children worldwide participate. The name for this competition is the Kangaroo. On this map you can see what countries participate. For this occasion I thought maths puzzles would be in order. Many, many maths puzzles.

Puzzle sunday (6)

Today some biology. DNA crosswordpuzzle? indeed. Probably to difficult for me too, or am I underestimating myself again?

Puzzle Sunday (5)

After my computer wouldn't follow the simplest commands last night and my posts kept disappearing, I was relieved it was for the best this morning, because I wouldn't have found this site today. Have fun.

I don't believe this, I'm seeing twice my posts... :D :D :D

Puzzle Sunday (5)

After my computer wouldn't follow the simplest commands last night and my posts kept disappearing, I was relieved it was for the best this morning, because I wouldn't have found this site today. Have fun.

Puzzle sunday (3)

Discovery (from discovery Channel) offers knowledge based puzzles and homework help online. Part of the site is commercial. The homework help is. The CD-ROM to make your own crossword puzzles (for learning words) is too. Some reasoning puzzles are listed in categories under reasoning. There are other categories: lateral thinking, spatial awareness, number and math play. I'm going to give some of the puzzles to my children, I'm sure, if not to adults.
The site is an example for education. Schools need maps of activities at different levels to make it easier for teachers to choose the right exercises for a particular child, taking in account deficits, strengths and special interests.