This morning, I got an idea to challenge my son’s vocabulary (and daughter once she’s reading) and also make the driving (visitation periods) less boring for them.
It’s Word Search puzzles with a twist! Sure, I could let him solve the puzzles by looking for words from the list then circling them in the puzzle. You know, the traditional way. But no that’s not what my children have signed up for by getting me for a dad. No, Sir.
Mixing it up in My Younger Days
During one of my Word Search phases, I got an idea of spicing up the puzzle by looking for all the words then looking at the list to see if I found them all. I think it was about the time I became obsessed with finding all the words I could make using the letters in a single word.
For Example: In the word Panda are the following words (may not be all of them):
- Pan
- Dap
- Nap
- Dan
- Pad
That’s a great game too. It’s not exactly like what I’m describing with the Word Search, but you get how they are sort of related.
So, that’s what I have in mind for my young readers – beginning with the older.
The New Word Search
I’ll tear out the list of words from the page. I’ll have him find the words while we drive.
After the drive, I’ll give him the list of words, and we’ll see how many of the words on the list he found. I expect the limited time will add more pressure. The coolest part for me is to see how many words he finds in the puzzle that are not on the list.
I know how hard this should be for a 6 year old/first grader. But I think I want to be the dad who insists on giving his kids much harder problems to solve than they are supposed to be capable of solving.
I’m the Type of Dad
Yeah, that’s definitely a good fit for me. It’s asshole enough, yet genius enough.
And come on, how much better would that boost the kid’s vocabulary? Can you imagine?!
And also, because why not?