Goodreads

It's the end of the year and time for all the year end synopses! I don't keep track of a lot of things, but I have almost always kept track of the books I've read. It started way back in high school in the 80's with a sheet of college lined paper, and today it is all tracked on Goodreads. I'm an ebook reader so my kindle tracks things for me and that makes things easier. I'm currently not on good terms with Amazon, but that said, I have had a kindle for too many years to give it up. And I've tracked books on Goodreads for too long too (and they're owned by Amazon also...Audible too ugh) Anyhow, if you are in any way curious about my 2022 year in books, you can click the link below.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2022/6121308

I just managed to hit my goal by reading a bunch of Murderbot Diaries books right there at the end (the first several are novellas). Total books read is 36 with 12,996 pages. The longest book was the Mistborn Trilogy with 2176 pages. I bought it as a combined trilogy and let Goodreads count it as one book, just so I could say I read a book that was 2000 pages long! lol It's silly I know! Anyhow, some good re-reads this year and a couple really good new books. I was blown away by Well's Murderbot books, Howey's Sand sequel, and Chamber's Tea Monk sequel...all so delicious! I also thoroughly enjoyed Sanderson's Mistborn series although I'm not usually into fantasy so much. He does a delightful job of creating a unique (to me) magic system and some kick butt characters!

Well, I could go on and on (just ask my friends and family who are seriously tired of hearing about what Murderbot did today!), but I will leave you with this...Stories are amazing. I hope you find some in the next year that delight you too!

(PS - This is a blog about puzzles for younger persons. I am not recommending the above books for young readers, just sharing what I've read. That said, most of them could be read by near-teens and teens. And some of them are actually young adult books. There is definitely murder and mayhem in many of these, but as Murderbot says "touching is gross", so not a lot of that kind of thing. Which does lead to the discussion of which bad thing is worse, sex or violence? (and is sex bad??) Anyway, too deep for this blog. And now I've bored you, or incited you. Apologies.)

2023 Maze

New Year's Eve is in just a couple days! Download this free puzzle for your kids by clicking on the picture above. It will take you to Google Drive. The file is a PDF. The first page is the puzzle and the second page is the answer key. So you only need to print the first page. The answer key is available in case you get stuck!

Good luck and have fun celebrating the New Year with your kids!

Crypto-Riddles Seasons and Holidays

I have been working on some new Crypto-Riddles puzzles. These puzzles have students practicing their basic math facts from 1 to 12 while solving a cute themed riddle or joke! Each set contain 6 pages with 2 puzzles per page. Just cut them in half...very easy to use! So far I have Christmas . . .

Thanksgiving . . .

New Year's and . . .

Winter completed!

You can purchase a growing bundle of all the holidays for a 20% discount. Buy now and future sets will be free to download as added! I don't have a bundle for seasons yet, but that will be coming soon too.

Hope your holidays are awesome! Hope the snow hasn't messed up too many plans.

Spanish Winter Puzzles

I have just posted my newest set of Spanish puzzles with a Winter theme to TPT! Click on the picture to check it out! But I will also tell you about it here...

There are 15 pages of puzzles and activities in this set. It actually contains a couple extra pages. The Cut & Paste activity (with really cute winter stamps from LittleRed) comes with a color version and a b/w version, so you can choose which to use. Some kids like coloring and some don't! Anyhow, there are also two pages of Simon Says puzzles. 

Each Spanish set that I create also contains flash cards, a list of the words studied, and a bonus item. This set's bonus item is a set of word jigsaw puzzles. For these, the words and pictures are broken up into vertical strips, with English at the top and Spanish at the bottom. There are two options for using these, that I can think of. You can print them on cardstock and cut them up to use as regular jigsaw type puzzles. This option would be reusable for multiple practice sessions or different classes/students. The other option would be to print out copies for each student. They can then cut and paste onto construction paper and create mini posters or what not. I have scrambled each set of puzzles, just in case you'd like to use this option.

I create these sets with the homeschool parent in mind. I found that my homeschooled students often needed some vocabulary review, and puzzles are a fun way to sneak that in. These sets contain easy to hard puzzles that you can pick through to find something appropriate for the multiple ages in your homeschool. I also think these would work wonderfully for elementary school teachers who teach Spanish to multiple grades.

I hope your Winter season is warm and snuggly with extra hot cocoa or, my newest favorite, hot cinnamon tea! OMG...so delicious!

Cheers!