I can't believe it!  Has it really been a year since I've blogged?

This has been an exciting year! 

Paul is graduating (has graduated actually).  Marley just turned 16!  Luke needs deoderant - lol!  Timothy has made up for any "behindedness" he may have phased through.  His reading has SOARED, he is a Math whiz, and his sense of humor and vocabulary astound me!  Did this child really not utter a word until he was 3½?

The closing of the Bright Minds division by The Critical Thinking Company caused our family to make a major decision for 2008.  We opened BRAIN-athon Emporium!  TCTC welcomed me as a reseller and I expanded the product line to include SMART games which include single-player logic games and multi-player games like Blokus.  I learned that my suppliers also carried a myriad of other brain-building products like manipulatives, science kits, and more and within 3 months we were truly the EMPORIUM we promised to be by the end of 2008.

In my world, play and learning are synonymous.  Games should require problem solving skills, analysis, and critical thinking.  I'm not sure what types of games are my favorite: word games or figural games.

Right now, we are loving Kanoodle.  It is a puzzle game that involves placing different shaped pieces, comprised of connected "beads" into either the rectangular compartment of it's case as a 2D puzzle, or into a pyramid as a 3D puzzle.  There are DOZENS of possible combinations.  It's one of those games that you can't stop playing even when you've solved it once.  There is a link to enter a drawing for a free Kanoodle game in the LINKS.

What's your favorite puzzle game and why?