Getting Started on Crossword Puzzles

On December of 1913, a man called Arthur Wynne gave birth to one of the most beloved past times of people today—the crossword puzzle. It was very different from way back then because aside from being called “Word-Cross” it also had a different format—a diamond shaped puzzle without internal black squares in it.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The newspaper is the most common avenue where one could see a crossword puzzle. Almost all broad sheets and dailies carry crossword puzzles because these are one of the main reasons why people buy them. But many hobbyists of crossword puzzles cannot wait for the next issue of the newspaper that is why they resort to books that contain compilation of different crossword puzzles.

Today, there are so many books that are published that would suit the person’s level of expertise. There are those who are for beginners that contain easier words to fill out. There are also those who are for advanced hobbyists that would contain difficult words and combinations.

In most bookstores today, crossword puzzles are also categorized depending on the age. Many crossword puzzle books are available now for kids such as “Wordbook Game for Kids” that contains easy word puzzles and with big and attractive illustrations. For adults who want to start slow, they can buy the “The Outrageous Crossword Puzzle” which is more laid back and easier to solve. For those who learns fast, there’s the ” The New York Times Monday Through Friday Easy to Tough Crossword Puzzles”. And, for those who are planning to get hooked into it, it is best to purchase the “The New York Times Crossword Omnibus: 1,001 Puzzles from the NYT” which is considered as the biggest book of crossword puzzles that was ever produced or published.

STARTER TIPS

Aside from being an entertaining hobby, the most important benefit the one can get from solving crossword puzzles regularly is that they exercise their minds. Experts say that those who solve crossword puzzles have lesser risks for dementia and other age-related neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. People who also solve crossword puzzles regularly are known to have lighter moods compared to those who don’t since they have an outlet for their emotions and other frustrations in life.

If you would want these benefits, now is the time to get started with crossword puzzles! Here some tips that can help you get by:

1. Learn how to solve it. If this is the first time that you will be solving a crossword puzzle, what you can do is grab a pen and start looking for the clues. By doing this, you will know which are the ones you can answer first. Once you have a word depending on the clue, you can look for more words until you finish the entire puzzle.

2. Read, read, and read! Since solving crossword puzzles is all about words, it is best if you update your vocabulary with new words as often as possible. This can be done by reading reference materials such as dictionaries, almanacs, and even novels. If you read these stuff regularly, you will be able to learn as many ambiguous words and phrases. If you are familiar with as many that words or phrases s possible, it will be easier for you to solve crossword puzzles.

May 31, 2009 · Filed Under Crossword Puzzles

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Crossword Puzzles for Kids

Crossword puzzles are not only for fun, they can also be used to test our knowledge. Using this as a tool to engage kids in academics is considered to be an effective way.
Educators find these kinds of exercises and puzzles are great way to engage children in participating in class activities.

There are times when children who are attending home school request a lot of breaks. To minimize these breaks, there could puzzles like this. Children would not notice that these are still part of the regular class, they would think that this is an intermission period for rest

Crossword puzzles and other word puzzles can develop the children’s way of thinking and their behavior. These puzzles can also improve the children’s reading, comprehension, logic and their vocabulary. To answer puzzle questions, children may have to research or look for answers in books, internet, dictionary, atlas and other medium of instruction.

Spelling is also among the grey subjects where a child can improve on while using crosswords are exercises. With regular classes, children are given a list of words they need to be familiar with. With crossword puzzles, children get to remember the words without exerting too much efforts memorizing. Why did they remember? Because they did not merely memorized it, they learned it through looking for its meanings in different ways.

Another good thing about crossword puzzles is that they always provide challenge. Children develop a sense of wanting to find all the answers and completing something academically related. When kids finish the crossword, they experience a sense of achievement and would be encouraged to learn more.

Different parts of language and grammar can be included in word puzzles like crosswords. What are these?

• Vowels and consonant sounds
• Syllables
• Singular and plural
• Vocabulary-nouns, verbs, adjectives
• Tenses
• Antonyms
• Synonyms
• Homonyms and homophones
• Anagrams

For younger children, you can include phonics to introduce the relationship between letters and sounds. Puzzles for older children, you can introduce synonyms, antonyms and other types of words. You can also create crossword puzzles to test the level of the comprehension. There could be stories and puzzles can be created out of it.

Make sure that the puzzles are age-appropriate. Also, do not forget to make them the puzzles creative and imaginative. This would make answering crossword puzzles both fun and educational.

The main benefit of letting children answer puzzles is that their imagination, creativity and sometimes even self-respect develop. Patience is also something they learn from puzzles. Children who answer puzzles become familiar with overcoming challenges and having enough patience to do so.

Crossword puzzles can also be a family affair. The whole family can have fun solving them and making the bond among the family members stronger. There are crossword dictionaries that could be purchased which can help in figuring our tricky crossword puzzles.

Technology has made everything easier nowadays. You can make custom crossword puzzles in your home so that you can engage your children with them and make it a daily habit, if possible. You can search for a program over the internet and download it to make your own puzzle. Free downloads are just a click away, while some software for crossword making may cost some serious bucks.

May 30, 2009 · Filed Under Crossword Puzzles

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How Crossword Puzzles Came to Be

Solving crossword puzzles is one of the most “indulged in” activities for people who love mind games. This is because this game is reported to be good for the mind since it encourages intellectual stimulation.

Today, more and more doctors recommend solving crossword puzzles to people who are getting older so they would avoid developing Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorder caused by old age. Medical experts also recommend this activity for kids because it is believed to contribute so much to their development such as their cognitive skills.

But, wouldn’t it be interesting to know what is crossword puzzle like before and compare it to the crossword puzzle that we know of today?

TRIP DOWN THE MEMORY LANE

In 1913, Arthur Wynne, a writer for New York World’s Game Page was the one who introduced the game to the public. He was tasked to come up with a game for the Special Christmas Edition of the newspaper. He came up with so many types of games but he ended up with a variation of ‘word squares’ which he used to play with his grandfather. had taught him when he was a boy. The original wold game contained words in the square and one has to read the same word in horizontal and vertical manner.

To give it a refreshing twist, Wynne came up with the “ACROSS” words which were entirely different from the “DOWN” words. This design became more challenging because the solver has to work on not just with one word but two words with one common letter on them.

In its debut on the December 21 issue, the puzzle was called “Word-Cross”. Many people were challenged by the new game and the newspaper received so many feed backs that they had to run it for three consecutive Sundays. After a month, typesetters had a mistake in typing the title and was published as “Cross-Word” instead of “Word-Cross.” But instead of receiving bad comments on the mistake, it has received more praises because many think it was more appropriate.

However, despite of its success, the newspaper tried to drop it after a few months because the editors were having a hard time on it because these are hard to print and it prone to typographical and other errors. But, when the readers did not saw puzzles in their copies, the unexpected happened: they rallied to the newspaper building. So hostile the people’s reactions were the World had to take back their decision and made the “Cross-Word” a permanent feature on the page. In the next ten years, only the World was the one who carried and printed the crossword puzzles.

Another important development on the crossword puzzles came in 1924 when Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster decided to publish a book that served as a compilation of crossword puzzles. The copies of the book were sold like hotcakes the first day it was out in the market and by 1925, more than 300,000 crossword books were sold to the public. This gave birth to Simon & Schuster as one of the major publishers that world know of today.

But the craze over the crossword also led to some unfortunate events such that made it less popular. Crimes were committed due to addiction to crossword and a person who committed suicide used it as a note to solve his case. Despite all those, crossword puzzles were able to revive itself and continues to be among the top mental exercises that most people indulge in today.

May 29, 2009 · Filed Under Crossword Puzzles