Perplexing Puzzles - 4/28/16 - Dragonfly

Continuing with a nature theme, we have some dragonfly puzzles this week!  These are for older kids who can handle a 9X9 Sudoku puzzle.  It has a lot of clues, so even novices should be able to figure this one out! 

Here are the answers:

Enjoy!

Perplexing Puzzles - 4/21/16 - Bird Watcher Word Search

In honor of Earth Day, I have a new puzzle!  This is a word search puzzle all about bird watching.  There are two pages to the puzzle.  One has the word search grid, as you can see above.

The other has some info about bird watching and the list of words to search for.  After all the words are found in the grid, the leftover letters will spell out the names of some "Hidden Birds."

You can download both pages by clicking on either picture above or here.  If you need an answer key, you can get that here.

If your kids are interested in birding, I recommend Backyard Birding for Kids.  It's a great introduction to bird watching.  There are different sections for different habitats, ideas for getting started, and descriptions of many common birds.

We used this Bird Log to keep track of birds in our backyard.  Ginny enjoyed tracking them when she was younger.  We used to have tons of cardinal pairs visit our backyard in Fayetteville NC.  When we lived in Augusta GA, we had visits from beautiful gold finches and an occasional hummingbird.  And now, in northern VA, we have a ton of robins and some woodpeckers!  So much variety along the east coast!

Ginny got a bird call from a museum visit when she was little.  She just loved it!  I've been eyeing this set of 12 Bird Calls from Moon Picnic as a potential gift for Ginny for a while now.  They are simply lovely and handmade!  You can also buy them in smaller sets.

These are just some ideas for budding birders.  (Note: I don't do affiliate links.  These are just products I've loved or would love if I owned them!)

I hope your kids have fun with this word search!
Have a wonderful Earth Day and enjoy the birds!

New Look for The Puzzle Den

We have a new look!  And we are totally loving it!  The old bear and den are gone.  Replaced by this mama bear and her cub.  Our banners feature a den, in case you were wondering where that had gotten to!  We figured our store needed its very own art.  Our new look was created by Jadyn Thone who is amazing and also did a fancy rotating quote thingy for our TpT store.  You can check out Jadyn's store here.  And you can check out The Puzzle Den here.  You really should see that rotating quote thing!

So I've been very busy trying to update everything with the new logo.  Jadyn also created a new cover template for our products.  It's a lot of work to change all the covers, but it's looking really nice.  Here's an example:

As I update the covers, I'm also going back through everything, checking for errors and making sure everything really shines!  Any products from TpT that you own can always be re-downloaded.  There are no time limits to download your purchases on TpT.  So check your "My Purchases" pages often and look for "Newly Revised Re-Download" underneath the products to see which products have been refreshed.  Then click "Download Now" to get updated versions.  It's probably something you check on at least twice a year.  Many sellers update their products to fix typos and generally fancy things up.  It's always nice to have the most recent versions too!

Counting Mazes and Skip Counting Mazes got quite the overhaul!  I replaced all the border graphics.  I had drawn the old ones myself, and they just weren't quite high-quality.  I also replaced most of the clip art.  Both of these sets are from my early months on TpT, and I didn't have access to the really good clip art yet.  Now all the graphics really shine!  You can download an example pair of mazes and give them a try by clicking on the picture below.

So over the next couple months, I will continue to update all the old products.  I don't know if I've mentioned it, but my daughter Ginny has joined me in this venture.  She helps me with ideas and error checking.  She also helps motivate me!  She is motivated by a 25% share in the profits.  All of which goes in her savings account for college.  She's been really helpful since we decided on this store sharing, and hopefully we will keep things rolling along!

Cheers!