Searching for the right words

My daughter's teacher gives a word search puzzle for homework every Wednesday, and while my little first-grader can breeze through the rest of her homework, word searches always leave her stumped.

"Can you help me?" she'll inevitably asks every time.

And I do help, because when I don't, a single puzzle can take her more than an hour to complete. I tell her the word is on the left side or on the right side, that it's near the top or somewhere in the middle. But I always feel a little guilty. Is that doing too much?

Back when I was a kid, I enjoyed word searches and other puzzles, but I think I was in at least third grade before I ever saw one. I can see how they'd be tough for a first-grader, and my daughter dreads them. (She says one of her classmates breezes through them.)

My sister recommended I get a book full of word searches for kids from Dollar Tree to help her get some practice. That's what my sister did with her children, and it really helped them master the word search.

So, I went to the store to try to find them, finally found one that I thought she'd like (it features Doc McStuffins), but she has yet to give any of the puzzles a try.

I don't want to make it feel like a chore for her, but I think I might start allotting time each night, say, 10 minutes or so, that she spends each night working on a ...

... Never mind. As I wrote this blog post (it's Wednesday), my daughter sat at her homework table behind me and completed the entire word search in less than 10 minutes. Just like that, she made my entire post out-of-date.