I was drawn to another literature-based curriculum then, called Sonlight. Though I eventually chose Before Five in a Row over it, I still tried to get hold of its book (and toy) list, which includes Mighty Mind. I was all set to order it from Amazon when my sister whose home is a homeschool mom’s paradise, gave us theirs! Her own children benefited much from it, she said.
Mighty Mind is a multi-awarded puzzle game that builds children’s problem solving skills and boosts confidence. It is a tangram-type puzzle that asks the player to build shapes using different puzzle pieces.
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| Photo from the Mighty Mind website |
A child progresses through each of the 30 puzzle cards that are arranged by increasing difficulty. Ideally, a child won’t get to the next step without first solving the previous one. Though the box indicates that the game is for 3 to 8 year olds, a younger child can start with the first one and go from there.
In the beginning, a child finds and puts puzzle pieces on top of the matching shapes printed on the card. Then, the child uses those same pieces to build the puzzle, like a circle, rectangle, diamond, and more and more complex shapes.
These first cards teach basic shapes concepts. As a child progresses through the more difficult cards, he is given the freedom to choose which pieces to use to build a puzzle. This helps in abstract thinking.
As I previously wrote, puzzles work on different levels of a child’s development, including thinking skills. From one-piece wooden peg puzzles to more complex tangrams like Mighty Mind, puzzles are an essential part of our preschool homeschool experience.
Mighty Great Giveaway
It is such a pleasure, then, for me to offer one set of Magnetic Mighty Mind, which is a travel-friendly version of this award-winning game, to one lucky reader! We carry Mighty Mind over at Shop @ The Learning Basket and working out this giveaway with the distributor was such a pleasure.
Are you ready to join our contest? Just follow the Rafflecopter!
And, if you are attending our Preschool Homeschool seminar on Saturday, you will get another chance to win this toy, albeit the regular (non-magnetic) version. Click here to sign up for that.
Make magic!
3 comments:
I love Sonlight! But it's too expensive for me. What made you choose Five in a Row over Sonlight?
puzzles exercise and enhance my child brain and ours too
Hi! I just got a better picture of Before Five in a Row (then eventually Five in a Row) than I did with Sonlight. I eventually saw the youngest level of the Sonlight curriculum which is for the same age group as Before Five in a Row, and I found it not as meaty as Before Five in a Row. I just love the encourage and inspiration found in the FIAR manuals :)
Also, I believe that Sonlight includes consumable materials that I won't be able to use with my second child.
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