Use this PlayTogether guide to learn how you can help your child turn Puzzlejuice play time into a positive learning and relationship-building experience. To learn more about why playing games with your children is so important, check out our Science of Play page.

Talk Before You Play

Take a minute to talk with your child about how the Time Management, Flexibility, Planning, and Focus thinking skills work, and why they are important for success in school and at home.

Set Gameplay Goals

Puzzlejuice is a single player game, however the game can be played in a "local" multiplayer fashion. In this way, one player may focus on sorting the blocks, while the other player looks for words within the letters. Another way both you and your child may play together is in a competitive fashion, playing to see who can spell the most words or clear the most blocks to earn points. Look over the gameplay goals below, and decide how you'd like to achieve them together.

Gameplay Goals:

• Spell 25 words during one attempt.
• Spell a six letter word.
• Use a "kaboom" power-up.
• Earn the "freeze" power-up.

Stop and Reflect

After you’ve completed the four goals, take a minute to pause the game and talk with your child about how Puzzlejuice is exercising your Time Management, Flexibility, Planning, and Focus skills.

• Discuss how Time Management is critical to your ability to make the most of your limited time and maintain a reasonable amount of blocks on the grid. Ask you child to name some time-strained parts of her day. How does she manage them?

• Describe how using Flexibility allows you to play longer and earn more points, in addition to preventing you from becoming too overwhelmed with the blocks. What are some everyday decisions that require quick thinking?

• Explain the Planning tactics you both used. Talk about how you could see upcoming blocks and use that information to think ahead about where to put the next blocks. What are some similar to real-life situations where you plan and act accordingly to a situation?

• Explain the importance of paying attention while playing the game, and how the same kind of Focus might help you with other things like finishing homework or cleaning your room quicker.

Our Make it Real activites are designed to transform your child’s gameplay into real-world improvements in thinking and academic skills. If you’re just getting started with LearningWorks for Kids, we suggest you try all of them in order to determine which activities are best for you and your child. 

Introduce the Thinking Skills

Read over the pages for Time Management, Flexibility, Planning, and Focus. Then take some time to introduce these thinking skills to your child.

Time Management Activity

Discuss the passage of time with your child, including concepts like “time flies” when they are very involved or busy in an activity. Help your child to understand that if she engages in a very interesting job, or dedicates a certain level of focus during class she will be less apt to watch the clock and wonder when it will be over. This same focus can work against her if she is involved in playing a game or having fun, causing her to lose track of time. Point out the need to keep track of time in order to adequately prepare for completing homework or chores on schedule.

Flexibility Activity

Play two games simultaneously in order to illustrate the way rules vary according to situations. This is described as the “double game challenge” by Adam Cox, Ph.D., who notes that it requires switching back and forth between sets of rules, keeping track of turns, and understanding the different strategies required in each game. You can talk to your child about how this is similar to the way that different teachers, different classrooms, or different parents may have varying rules and expectations.

Planning Activity

Use building tasks to strengthen planning skills. Use hands-on building tasks with blocks, Legos, bricks, or lumber to complete a paper-based design. Creative artwork with geometric forms also requires foresight, planning, breaking down the plan into steps, and building a design. Many toys beyond simple blocks or Legos, such as Geomix, Hexabits, and Connex, require planning and visualization skills. Engage in both free play (with a particular design in mind) and tasks in which you use completely pre-designed models. Compare and contrast your approaches and planning decisions.

Focus Activitye

Refocus. Help your child to see that it is not uncommon to be distracted by thoughts or ideas, but follow that up with self-instructional strategies for redirecting attention back to the task at hand. You could model this for your child when working on a project or a chore, while simultaneously talking about other things you want to be doing, such as reading a book or getting some exercise. Then mention to, or show, your child how you redirect your focus to the task at hand. For example, say something like, “I need to finish emptying the dishwasher, then I can go to the gym.” Prompt her to use similar self-instructional reminders when confronted with numerous distractions.

THIS GAME ALSO HELPS YOUR CHILD WITH:

Writing

With such a large portion of the game focusing on the ability to spell words, the player will receive a great deal of practice spelling words ranging from three letter words, to the longest words she knows. Also, when she spells a word incorrectly, she becomes aware that she in fact does not know how to spell that particular word, and may need to look it up later. As an added bonus, the game offers a dictionary feature so she has the opportunity to look up the definitions of words she may have spelled correctly, but does not know the correct meaning. Playing Puzzlejuice will improve her spelling skills naturally as she plays the game and challenges herself to form words of all sizes.

PuzzleJuice & Dyslexia

PuzzleJuice is a great way to practice identification and creation of words. Players are benefited by acting quickly to form words and lengthier words are more advantageous for creating space. Children who have difficulty identifying, spelling, and writing words can practice the basic skills required for forming words. This game will also help players to remember common letter combinations and rules of grammar by forcing them to practice creating words continuously and at speed.

How to Use PuzzleJuice for Children with Dyslexia:

• Use PuzzleJuice to help expand vocabulary. The possibilities for different letter combinations are nearly infinite and you should work with your child to be creative and unique. Your child should also make an effort to not repeat words or avoid only using short, three letter words.

• Take turns playing PuzzleJuice and be sure to indicate your thought processes to your child as you create words. Explain any words that are unfamiliar to your child and encourage them to make a working list of new words with definitions. Lengthy and creative words can help your child increase high scores, giving more motivation to improve reading and decoding skills, both essential to proficient reading.

• Have fun with the words you and your child create in PuzzleJuice. When one of you is playing, the other can write down the different words used. Later, try creating funny or interesting sentences that use these words properly. Helping you child expand vocabulary and see new words in proper context can be beneficial to overall reading proficiency.