Celebrating National Puzzle Day With Creator Jodi Jill and Allison Kane From Highlights Magazine

Highlights has teamed up with the founder of National Puzzle Day, Jodi Jill to get kids and families excited about puzzling together. Whether it's a crossword, jigsaw, trivia word searches, brain teasers or Sudoku, puzzles put our minds to work. Founded in 2002, National Puzzle Day is a way to share enjoyment of puzzles. As a syndicated newspaper puzzle maker and professional quiz maker, Jodi Jill developed classroom lesson plans especially for the observance and the popularity has grown year after year. Partnering this year with Allison Kane, Head of Puzzle Innovation at Highlights, they have developed some fun ways to celebrate Puzzle Day with fun free resources for your puzzle fun. Studies have found that when we work on a jigsaw puzzle, we use both sides of the brain.  And spending time daily working on puzzles improves memory, cognitive function, and problem-solving skills. Word searches and crossword puzzles have the obvious benefit of increasing vocabulary and language skills. Sudoku, a puzzle sequencing a set of numbers on a grid, exercises the brain as well. By testing memory and logical thinking, this puzzle stimulates the brain and can improve number skills. Puzzles also offer social benefits. When we work on these brain teasers with someone, we improve our social interactions. Whether we join a group or play with our children, those interactions keep us socially active and teach our children social skills, too. Even working them quietly together provides an opportunity to focus the mind.