Top Five Logic Games for Kids

Okay, so in one compartment of my life, I teach technology to elementary students. It's a lot of teaching typing, especially to my older students. But for my younger kids -- I'm talking grades 1-4 -- I spend a lot of time trying to get them to think.

Because thinking is a hard skill to learn. It requires practice. We want our kids to grow up learning how to solve problems, not just follow formulas (though those skills are needed too!).

So with my younger grades, all my focus is on math enrichment. I do some skill-building games, fact practice, and the like.

But my favorite games -- and my students' favorite games -- are the logic games. I tell the kids they have to THINK about each problem and then find a way to solve it. Sometimes we fail. That's okay! We persevere in solving the problem until we find the solution. And there's always more than one way to do that in each level.

These are our top 5 logic games. You can find these, and many more (MANY MORE) on Math Playground, Hooda Math, or Cool Math Games.

If your kids are going to play on the computer anyway, why not have them thinking while they do it?

1. Snail Bob 2: In this game, Snail Bob is trying to navigate his way through a dangerous forest to get to his Grandpa's birthday party. Every level has different difficulties the students must figure out. My students cheer when they get to the birthday party!

2. Cover Orange 2: In this game, you must save the orange (and sometimes the apple) from getting juiced by the evil Ninja Cloud! He throws ninja stars, which of course we all know pierces fruit and kills them! Each level has unique tools (barrels, wheels, wooden blocks, etc.) to use in a variety of ways.

3. Cat Around the World: In this game, you need to feed the hungry cat as he makes his way around the world to various famous locations. Level 1 starts in New York City at the Statue of Liberty. Each level has a variety of challenges, and kids must think about how things move in order to feed the cat. Also check out Cat Around Asia and Cat Around Europe.

4. Factory Balls: This is our all-time favorite! I have students who play this game every day they love it so much. In Factory Balls, you need to recreate a ball using various tools like paint, belts, hats, glasses, covers, seeds, and more. Warning: highly addictive! Also check out Factory Balls 2, 3, 4, and Christmas.

5. Rhinos Vs. Hippos: This is a new discovery for me. In this game, you need to drop the evil rhinos out of the game, but keep the nice hippos. They both roll for an added challenge, and they're sometimes attached to each other, or balanced precariously. It's great fun!

Check some of these out -- you might just like them yourself!

Thankful Thursday - Teachers

When's the last time you were in a classroom? A real one, like non-college or high school. Like elementary school, yeah, let's go with elementary school. Have you been to an elementary school recently?

They're awesome. Here's why.

I went to my husband’s classroom last week. Or maybe two weeks ago. Or it might have been at the beginning of August. It doesn’t matter.

Because in his room, shelves line the entire back wall. These shelves hold magic. These shelves hold books. New worlds. Funny people I want to meet and cry with and laugh with and hug. Mean girls I want to see fall on their faces. Magicians. Boys who can draw terrible things and fly like the wind and ride horses and save kingdoms.

Classrooms house joy. They house printed books. None of the students have e-readers or Kindle’s or discuss if books should come in different formats. They hold power in their hands. They hold books.

And that is why books will always be published in the traditional way. For there is no thrill in lightly running your finger down the spine of your Kindle. Or flipping the pages of your iPhone. Or opening a new book and breathing in the scent that is unmistakably wonder.

So this Thursday, I am thankful. For books, in all their varieties. For teachers and students and parents who buy books. For authors who write them. Publishers who print them.

What are you thankful for?

Being Thankful

My sister-in-law Lisa recently started a blog. She told me about one of her friends who was doing a Thankful post every day during November. I decided I wanted to do that, but that I would only do it during the week leading up to Thanksgiving. It will really be eight posts because I'm going to start today and post on Thanksgiving as well.

So without further ado...

I am thankful for my job.

Okay, so I may not fight off the KGB or use a whip to propel myself out of exploding trucks, but just like Indiana Jones, I am a part-time teacher. Never underestimate what I might be doing when I'm not teaching...

But seriously, I love my job. It is the best job on the planet for a mom to have. In an economy that is seeing epic fail, my job is secure. Sure, I may not get paid much, but I get to work with kids and sleep in during June and July.

So what are you thankful for this holiday season?

Sick and Tired

Status of my Life: I made it through the first week of school. And my voices are back, so I've been writing like crazy when I get home from teaching. I've done between 2 and 3 thousand words every afternoon this week. I love hearing voices!


I've had a great week, but I'm so sick. And tired. It's hard getting up to an alarm, getting everyone ready and out of the house by 8, and then working--all when you're not used to doing it. Once I get back into the groove, everything will be like buttah.

I've loved reading the blog chain as it's progressed, so if you haven't been following along on how all my writerly buddies get their mojo on, you should.

I'm glad to say that I found another character to badger. I've been so focused on Jon for so long (and then the voices stopped) that I was worried he was the only one worth writing about. I've had little snippets of a character come to me, and I've written those down in a notebook. But now I've really got someone talking and boy, once he started, he won't shut up! I just wish I could sit down and write the whole thing out uber-fast. I have a general idea of what's going to happen, but it's all coming together too easily, so I'm trying to find something to torture my "voice" with.

And I think I found it yesterday. It's actually another person. Inside another person. Yup, it's a possession story, not really ghosts, but more like spirits and reincarnation. I love stuff like that. Creepy, but not too creepy. Possible, but really not. A little romance, a little ghostly twist, a nasty Re-Entry examiner, what could be better?

Maybe landing an agent and getting published. Yeah, that would definitely be better!

Reading: THE DOOR TO TIME (ULYSSES MOORE) by Pierdomenico Baccalario

Back to Real Life

Status of my Life: I finished another edit of SHADOWS. And I finally wrote something new yesterday. Going back to work threw me all out of wack, and I didn't have anyone talking because I had so many other things clouding my mind. But yesterday (my day off) I finally heard them again and I was able to write 1800 words in a new novel I started a while ago and am now changing up a little bit. After about a week, that's relief.


So yeah. School's starting again. It's usually only bad until October. By then I have the little darlings all trained up and things run smoothly. But the next six weeks...yikes.

And that means that I'm going to have to be more scheduled with my time. I've set a bedtime of 11 PM and I'm going to try to focus on writing from 9-11 every night. I'm sure I'll get sucked into the black abyss of my writing forums, but I'm really going to try not to get too...sucky. We'll see how that goes.

My son is back in school, and scouts, and piano and that means time running him around to his thousands of activities. Time to get the notebook back in the purse so while I'm waiting for him, I can write.

Real life isn't sooo bad, it's just getting back into it.

Reading: THE DARK IS RISING by Susan Cooper