Educating Risa

In a previous post I mentioned one of the series of workbooks Daegan has enjoyed the most: Dr. Dooriddles. Here’s a typical riddle from these books, level A2 (grades K-2):

I’m found inside pillows,
I help keep birds dry;
I’m soft to the touch,
Birds need me to fly.

What am I?____________________________ (answer: feathers)

We’ve used these playful riddle books to practice penmanship (printing, upper and now lower cases), spelling, and careful reading (and reading comprehension), along with the obvious critical / creative thinking (riddle-solving). By having Daegan date his work, even he can clearly see progress. Here’s his printing from about a year and a half ago, in September 2008:

You can see that he was printing all in capitals, unevenly—letters squished together, above and below the line, lighter and darker lettering—and that he had to correct his spelling of ‘face’ (from the phonetic ‘fase’). Here is his work from a few days ago:

Quite the difference, eh?

There are several books in the Dr. Dooriddles series, of varying complexity—and I believe you can buy a computer version of the series instead if you prefer. We’ve finished books A1 and A2, and will be moving on to the “Spelling Dooriddles” next, which are somewhat more difficult, as each solution involves two words. Here’s a typical example:

I am a fluffy grain,
We eat it at our house;
With M replacing R,
I mean more than one mouse.

What am I? __________________________________ (answer: rice / mice)

Here are Daegan’s (age 7, soon to be 8 ) comments on Dr. Dooriddles:

I like it [the Dr. Dooriddles series] because it doesn’t tell you the answers. It makes you think. Some are fairly easy, but some are hard. And some answers are funny or surprising. I think most kids would like this series, because riddles are fun.