Crossword Puzzles
The first Crossword Puzzle was designed by
Arthur Wynne and published in the New
York World in 1913. Since then this art form has steadily increased
in popularity and has become an integral part of virtually every newspaper,
magazine and periodical published today.
Arthur
Wynne’s original puzzle had a grid in which the blacked out squares formed a
symmetrical pattern and this tradition is still adhered to by some authors.
Others have moved away from this and some grids today are not symmetrical at
all. Different types of puzzles - such as the “Blockword”, “Blockbuster”
etc. - have also evolved. They have their clues incorporated in the body of
the puzzle and often use picture inserts as clues as well.
The
traditional puzzle is either a reasonably quickly solved “10 Minute” type,
where clues and answers are often synonyms of each other, or a “Cryptic”
type where clues are compiled by “playing with” the vocabulary and grammar
and the language itself. There are virtually “no holds barred” in Cryptic
puzzles and they therefore present a tremendous challenge to both compiler
and solver since they invariably also require a considerable amount of
“lateral thinking”.
Crossword Puzzles are educational as well
and this will, I believe, be of particular interest to Home Educators.
Vocabulary, spelling, grammar etc. immediately spring to mind but puzzles
can also be made using clues and answers based on specific subjects. James’
Crossword Puzzles has compiled puzzles ranging from one advertising a Golf
Tournament and the sponsor’s product to raising funds for, and publicizing,
an old age center. Puzzles have been compiled for Scientific Journals on
specific subjects and for a Navy Newsletter on matters nautical.
But the “stars of the show” in the
educational field, and the ones which will undoubtedly interest Home
Educators, are the Family Series – monthly puzzles for children aged from
about seven to about fourteen years old – and the Biology Series – for
students of Biology from high school grades up. Since the raison
d’être for a Crossword Puzzle is to provide amusement and enjoyment I make
sure that these do amuse and are enjoyed by those who do them.
I look forward to you joining my
“puzzling world” soon,
James
