Puzzles, Games, and Gift Ideas for All Ages

Everyone knows about the importance of exercising our bodies, but what about our minds? Just like other parts of the body, our brains require constant exercise in order to stay sharp and work efficiently. One way to do this is by working on puzzles, riddles, and optical illusion challenges. Sounds like fun? You’re right, it is! Essentially, these types of games help your brain to process information in different ways. Instead of jumping straight to the most obvious conclusion, it has to consider other factors and work in a roundabout way.



No wonder we call those puzzles brainteasers! Doing these types of puzzles isn’t just all fun and games. Since they train our brains to work better, these skills stay with us throughout our lives, at work, school, and play. This is an excellent ability to develop and it helps us to create more efficient solutions to daily problems, from organizing items in a kitchen cabinet, to finishing a school project, or increasing sales of a product. Puzzles and brain challenges can be done by just about anyone. The resources below offer some suggestions for all ages: elementary students, high school students, college-level students, and adults in general. Try do all of them in your category before consulting an answer guide or getting help from someone! 



Elementary



Word and Number Searches

Print or download some fun puzzles that will have you racking your brain to find the correct word or number combinations!



Brainy Jigsaws

Learn all about neuroscience, or the study of the brain, with these colorful online jigsaw puzzles. How many can you complete?



Measuring Puzzles (PPT)

Find out how to apply math in many real-life examples and see if you can complete all the math puzzles correctly.



Weeding Out Sums

Solve all the sums without using a calculator, and then figure out which one does not belong in each puzzle



Crazy Coin Puzzles (PDF)

Download a puzzle activity package that deals with all sorts of coins and related puzzles, word searches and more.



High School



U.S. Presidents Crossword Puzzle

See how well you remember the facts and trivia about our U.S. presidents in an interactive online crossword puzzle.



Decoding the 1800s

Explore the Victorian era by solving a number of different puzzles to learn about famous people of the time, Queen Victoria, and living standards.



Logic Brainteasers

Choose a logic puzzle according to your preferred difficulty level and check the main home page for solutions after you’ve given it your best try.



Tangram Puzzles

Tangram is an ancient Chinese puzzle game where a player has to rearrange the pieces to create a new shape. Be warned: it’s actually much harder than it looks!



Optical Illusion Puzzles

These fun optical illusions will trick your brain and your eyes into believing that you’re seeing things that aren’t really there!



Young Adult



Themed Crosswords

Pick a theme or topic to try out a crossword with corresponding clues. This site offers online puzzles, as well as printable versions of the same ones.



Fibonacci Sequence Puzzles

Use the age-old mathematical concept of the Fibonacci Sequence to help solve a series of challenging word and visual puzzles. It helps to jot down ideas on paper as you work through the puzzles.



Brain Twisters for the Holidays

For some more fun with your puzzles, check out these holiday-themed ones, including Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and even Elvis Presley’s birthday!



Visual Puzzles

See if you can solve all the interactive visual brain teasers by working through the difficulty levels.



The Tower of Hanoi

This challenge was originally created in 1883, but it is still as puzzling today! Three rings have to be moved from the left-most peg to the one on the right, in as few moves as possible!



Adult



Cryptic Crosswords

Try a series of four crossword puzzles with mind-bending clues, before peeking at the provided answer guides.



Sudoku Puzzles

These classic number puzzles will have you hooked. Choose from four levels of difficulty, from Easy, Medium, Hard, and Evil!



Pick a Puzzle!

You’ll never be bored with this huge selection of online puzzles, sorted by genres that include battleships, mazes, grids, snakes and more.



Visual Brain Teasers

Find out how strong your observation skills are with this extremely strange optical puzzles that were specifically designed to deceive your brain.



Logical Word Problems

Read each problem and apply straightforward logic to solve the riddles. Just remember that the answer is often much simpler than it seems.