Mental Exercises - Create Your Own Crosswords

Looking for some mental exercise? At Crossword Puzzle Games I've found a new hobby to share with caregivers and seniors - creating custom crossword puzzles. Free software on the internet allows you to write your own clues and answers. Memory exercises and word games have been long recommended for seniors, or for anyone who wants a mental workout, and this adds a new aspect to crosswords.

To write a crossword puzzle, first you list the words and clues, and then the software produces the information in a crossword puzzle format. For my own projects I am using trivia from historical eras for creating crosswords. For instance, I'm creating a puzzle now with trivia from the 1950's that includes words like "hoola hoop."

I'm always looking for activities for caregivers or activity leaders to use with elderly seniors. There are many sites on the internet for making your own crosswords, and if you want some ideas for themes you can go to sites for special interests, such as memorabilia, trivia, history and so on.

Book at AARP Covers Crossword Puzzles, Gridlock, and Geniuses

Caregivers and seniors, would you like to have some fun? Here is a puzzle to solve - Who is competitive, funny, "punny" and inventive? Answer: Crossword puzzle writers. At AARP Magazine.org you can read a review about an interesting book "Gridlock: Crossword Puzzles and the Mad Geniuses Who Create Them" by Matt Gaffney. Did you know that no more than one-sixth of the puzzle can be filled with black squares? Or that when the puzzle is turned upside down the pattern of black squares remains the same?

It's all in the book along with the interesting psychology about the kind of puzzling people who write crossword puzzles. The stories about crossword authors as hypercompetitive and obsessive make them sound like "type A" personalities.

The trivia behind the crosswords and the writers might help those of us who do crosswords to picture the authors as they devise themes, design grids, and write clues.

Caregivers and seniors can enjoy reading the review or get the book. Some of the seniors I've assisted have difficulty with vision but I do crosswords with them by reading the clues and number of letters in the word out loud.

For instance, "What's a nine letter word for a square that has a design of black and white squares inside of it, with a list of clues?"