Word Search

My son and I were doing some math and word puzzles together the other day.  He’s good at crossword puzzles, picture path and picture cross puzzles and he picked up Suduko the first time I showed it to him.  The other thing he likes is word searches.  

We sit in front of the iPad and work together to complete or solve each challenge.  He picks up what to do from watching me very quickly.   We particularly like doing Picture Path puzzles together, both of us completing a number path as quickly as the other one takes their finger off the screen.

His sister does word search puzzles at school.   I get the sighted version (printed page) of the word search with horizontal, vertical and diagonal words.   Her braillist has translated it into braille format with words all horizontal and forwards.   Since my daughter can’t scan over the page visually, this is a reasonable change to how the words are “hidden”.   She always finds all the words, underlining them with a crayon.

Tonight she disappeared upstairs after dinner and was gone for a good while.  She came downstairs and said she had created a word search for dad and me to do.   Dad could do it first since he was learning braille and I could help if he needed it.

There were three pages.   The first page was instructions, with very detailed, full sentences of how to do the work.   There was a “word bank” on the next page of words we were to search for on the third page which was the grid of letters with the words hidden.   We would use a crayon to underline the words we found.

My husband was slowly reading through the instructions so my daughter went around the corner to the bathroom—but she was listening to him spell out the words.   If he got stuck, she would call out what the word or braille symbol was.   My husband is getting pretty fast though and only needed help with the contractions he didn’t know yet.

She came back in and wanted to read the word bank words to us.  We ran out of time to do the search itself, but it’s sitting on the counter for tomorrow morning (should we not be running late).   My daughter continues to impress me with her school work and how very detailed her memory is.

The Big Boy Update:  My son and I did a crossword puzzle that had only one clue—a picture of sushi.   He and I had to figure out what the twelve interlocking words were.   He had some good guesses.   We had to use a clue to get one of the words, but we figured the rest out.   He’s fun to play games with where you have to think.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter suggested something for Aunt Martha and my mother to do with her.   When they told her they were going to let her do it and they would pass, she said, “well, suit yourself.”   The way she said it made them both laugh.