All about KenKen!

KenKen in Scholastic

2010-08-04T17:11:00.003-04:00

So KenKen has finally made its way into one of the most prominant math education magazines in the U.S! Scholastic Math & DynaMath, two magazines that focus on developing the mathematical minds of young children, have begun to include KenKen in the daily grind. It will be used as a fun and challenging way to enhance the learning experience.
You can also find a fun online interactive KenKen game on the scholastic website (www.scholastic.com). It provides two daily puzzles, one 4x4 KenKen and one 5x5 KenKen. Make sure to check it out in addition to the six daily puzzles at www.kenken.com!

Promoting KenKen to Squirelles!

2010-08-02T10:36:00.002-04:00

Shooting the bossman @ Nextoy LLC

2010-07-27T12:00:00.001-04:00

So yesterday I got a package delivered to my house. I knew it would either be the Staples Easy Button, or my USB Missile Launcher. Thankfully, it was the missile launcher. Since the bossman, Mr. Fuhrer, loves toys and novelties, I figured he would be ammused if he got hit with a missile.

I got to work early, set up the launcher, practiced the shot a million times, and set up the hidden camera. The whole plan worked out great, he couldnt see the missile launcher from his seat, couldnt see the camera, I was good to go. He hilariously walked in and starts talking about what we needed to do for the day, meanwhile I was taking careful aim at his face.

I took the shot, and missed slightly right, I dont know what happened. I took another shot and missed far left. After the second shot, which he saw fly past his face, he was onto me.

Tomorrow i'll throw up the video.

होमेस्चूल मैथ ब्लोग्स व्

2010-07-26T15:22:00.001-04:00

I found the following blogs while searching around for good places for parents to learn about teaching math to their children.

www.themathmom.com

I would like to share with you a great site for parents: www.TheMathMom.com It is funny, informative and captivating. Claiming that Life is a Puzzle and we can solve it with numbers, The Math Mom demonstrates how we all use mathematics daily when cooking, shopping, parenting, dating or managing our homes. TheMathMom.com contains stories, life puzzles and tips fr parents on presenting math to their kids as a toy, a tool and a friend. You can subscribe for a weekly newsletter.

www.homeschoolmath.blogspot.com/

This blog is very similar to TheMathMom. The author is a mother and a teacher, and does a great job combining her personal life with her helpful tips about teaching and math. She works for MathMammoth, a leading website for math curriculum.

Great Intro to a 4x4 KenKen!

2010-07-24T16:58:00.000-04:00

KenKen 4x4 Introduction and Strategy - The most popular videos are a click away

What cant math do?

2010-07-23T11:25:00.001-04:00

Discover magazine has a top 100 stories list each year. These stories include new scientific breakthroughts, fun facts about math, and many other cool ways of relating these topics to daily life.

This particular entry talks about how combining a GPS system with mathematical methods could help fix traffic jams. If you think logically about a traffic jam, you realize it is pretty simple. After the crash or what not is cleared, the "jam" moves steadily backwards, as the amount of cars piling up is doing so at a faster rate than those who are leaving the jam in the front. The correct speed of incoming cars to leaving cars would have to be reached to allow jams to disperse more quickly.

Check out more of these cool stories at this link. http://discovermagazine.com/2010/jan-feb/39

How to KenKen

2010-07-20T11:25:00.001-04:00

Many people get scared off from KenKens because of the initial shock of how "hard" the puzzles are. However, the smaller sized puzzles are actually much easier than Sudoku. Once you get over the slight learning curve, no one has an issue playing.

Check out this site: http://www.squidoo.com/kenken-puzzles.

Squidoo has a collection of How-To's and other great.

Top ten math websites

2010-07-19T11:25:00.001-04:00

Top 10 Math Websites!

www.kenken.com

The following have been voted the top 10 websites for helping kids/parents/teachers use math techniques. You can find kenken in many of them. Thanks to Sylvan Learning Center

1) www.mathforum.com. This online community includes teachers, students, researchers, parents and educators who have an interest in math and math education. The site includes Ask Dr. Math, Problems of the Week, discussion groups and much more.

2) www.AAAmath.com. Customized by grade level and topic, AAA Math features explanations of various mathematical topics, practice problems and fun, challenging games.

3) www.coolmath.com. This fully interactive site and allows the user to sharpen basic math skills, play games and explore new math concepts.

4) www.figurethis.org. Created by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, this site helps families enjoy mathematics outside school through a series of fun and engaging challenges.

5) www.mathcats.com. Math Cats provides playful explorations of important math concepts through games, crafts and interactive projects. Includes a magic chalkboard and an art gallery.

6) www.easymaths.org. This South African Community website for teachers, parents and students is complete with lessons, tests, exams, worksheets, study skills and much more.

7) www.bbc.co.uk/education/megamaths/tables.html. This lively, interactive Web site, based on the popular BBC Schools Television series “Megamaths,” is for practicing and testing times tables.

8) www.mathleague.com. The Math League, designed for students in fourth grade through high school, specializes in math contests, books and computer software. The “Help Facility” is handy reference guide for math topics complete with examples, definitions and explanations.

9) www.fleetkids.com. FleetKids games teach elementary children several different aspect of money management. Games include Windfall, where a child can run an imaginary business and BuyLo/SellHi, where children can play the stock market. Students can sign up as an individual or as part of an elementary school team.

10) www.funbrain.com/numbers.html. This site includes 17 original games based on soccer, car racing and much more Other games include Math Baseball, where a child can score runs with correct answers and Operation Order, where students can build pyramids with their knowledge of algebra.

A Day at the Nextoy Office

2010-07-14T15:52:00.002-04:00

Pro's and Con's of HomeSchooling

2010-07-13T11:45:00.004-04:00

Pros:

Children are taught according to their learning styles and interests.
Parents have more control over how and what their children are taught.
Children can progress slowly or quickly, according to their abilities.
Schedules revolve around family and allow time to bond with parents and siblings.
Flexible schedules allow time for breaks, field trips, vacations.
Curriculum for an entire year costs less than 1 month of private school tuition.
Parents can transmit their values to children and shelter them from negative influence

Cons:

Parents must help children improve upon their weaknesses and not just cater to their strengths.
Parents take on sole responsibility for their children's education.
Parents may feel inadequate to address the needs of gifted and special needs students.
Extended time with family can strain tense relationships or lead to burnout on the part of the teaching parent.
Family crises, illness and lax supervision by parents can interfere with learning.
Parents must purchase own materials and still pay public school taxes.
Parents must search for activities such as sports and music that are easily accessible at school.
Parents must give children increasing independence and a chance to learn to stand for their values.

Credit due to: Successful-homeschooling.com

Do you agree with this? Any homeschoolers that would like to share their thoughts please do!

iPhone issues

2010-07-09T11:56:00.001-04:00

Yellow screens, faulty reception, and slow upload speeds are just a few of the problems with the new iPhone 4. Early adopters to the new device may be unable to control their anger with Apple. For those iPhone users who need to control their frustration, why not use the KenKen app from the iTunes store? KenKen can always take your attention away from external distractions. Once you’re concentrated on a KenKen puzzle, nothing can distract you, not even one bar in the upper-right hand corner of your cell phone.

There are three versions of KenKen in the App Store. There’s a free version to download so you can get a taste of KenKen. Then when you crave more puzzles, there are two premium versions. KenKen: Train Your Brain provides a ton of additional puzzles, and the KenKen Pro app provides even more and allows you to write in the numbers using hand gestures.
Apple is having a tough time coming up with a solution. They tried software updates, but it doesn’t seem to be working too well. Before you know it, they might even call for a recall. So, before your shiny, new iPhone needs to be sent back for repair, play as much KenKen while you can. When the time comes that you’re waiting for your iPhone to be repaired, if you have an older iPhone lying around, all the apps will work on that one too. Or, if you have an iPad, just double up the pixels and the game still looks crystal-clear.

So when you’re not video chatting with other disappointed iPhone 4 users on FaceTime, open up a KenKen app and you won’t even notice that your concerns for the iPhone issues have faded away.

Dan Sprouse Show on KenKen

2010-07-07T11:19:00.010-04:00

The DS show does a hilarious episode on KenKen.

Like it? Love it? Leave a comment!

KenKen and Alzheimers

2010-07-06T12:23:00.001-04:00

There are tons of researchers debating whether or not brain games and mental exercises such as KenKen and Sudoku can actually help the brain develop, and thus "beat" Alzheimers. A study done at East Carolina University studied the effects of daily casual mentally challenging video games. The results were promising. As opposed to video games that require little logic and reasoning, games such as Bejeweled, a simple logic game, helps the brain promote active participation. This type of participation cannot be found in activities such as watching TV or playing a mindless video game.

The brain needs exercise just like the body does. If you use and challenge your brain often, it will be healthier for longer. Pretty simple huh?

One mans response to KenKen

2010-07-01T12:20:00.003-04:00

After going on about how he loved, then got bored of Sudoku, and the same for Kakuro, this guy found KenKen...

Happily, just as I was getting disillusioned with Kakuro, KenKen stepped into my life. It arrived in the form of a book--a review copy of Will Shortz Presents KenKen Easiest Volume 1 from St. Martin's Press. It is written by Shortz and Tetsuya Miyamoto, the Japanese math teacher who invented KenKen. "Ken" means wisdom in Japanese, thus KenKen means wisdom squared--or perhaps cleverness squared, depending on your translation.

It took me about 30 seconds to grasp the rules of KenKen and another 30 seconds to get sucked into the book. Shortz, The New York Times' crossword puzzle editor since 1993 and probably the most famous puzzle guru around, praises KenKen as a puzzle that's easy to learn yet spans a range from simple to very difficult, and he's right

http://tinyurl.com/9xx3xs

Beat These Times!

2010-06-29T16:25:00.003-04:00

Benchmarks are always fun to look at, fastest times, longest fingernails, etc. etc. I put together a short list of benchmarks that I like to time myself against while playing KenKen

To make it interesting, time yourself against an eyebrow hair:

The world’s longest eyebrow hair currently recorded is 6 3/8 inches, grown by Brian Peterkin-Vertanesian. Converting a measurable length to a measurable amount of time is impossible, and arguably useless, but we will do our best for the sake of KenKen. Each inch converts to a minute, so each half-inch converts to 30 seconds, easiest conversion ever. So! (6 inches = 6 minutes) + ( 3/8 inch converting to 22.5 seconds) = 6 3/8 minutes, obviously. But, since it’s an eyebrow and the eyebrow is halfway down the face, you have to divide the time by 2, giving you 3 3/16 minutes (3 minutes 11.25 seconds). After reading this you have most likely lost a couple of useful brain cells, which you now have to make up. Can you beat a daily 7x7 KenKen in 6 3/8 inches?

Can you KenKen the time it takes:

- To finish the fastest round of golf? 27 minutes and 9 seconds

- To Joey Chestnut to eat 68 hot dogs? 10 minutes

- A space shuttle to reach outer space? 9 minutes

- Sunlight to reach the Earth? 8 minutes and 20 seconds

- Wash your hands? 15 seconds

- Usain Bolt to run a 100 Meter Dash? 9.58 seconds

- To blink an eye? 350 milliseconds

Good luck yall,

Detecting Alzheimer's Earlier

2010-06-29T11:57:00.006-04:00

A team of scientists at University of Kentucky's College of Medicine conducted research to determine structural differences in the brains of high-risk and low-risk seniors. The causes of Alzheimer's has been thought to be the decaying of both grey and white matter in the brain. Grey being matter that holds information, and white being matter that connects everything together, like electrical wiring.

White matter is made up of axons, each of which are protected by a myline sheeth. The axons send impulse messages to each other, allowing each part of the brain to share information. In this study, the team used MRI's to compare the structural differences in the brain between the two groups. What they found was, in a way, up lifting.

The high-risk seniors (who have not been diagnosed with the disease as of late) showed definite signs of White matter decay, but not signs of Grey matter decay. The low-risk seniors showed little decay of both.

So why is this up-lifting? Grey matter is extremely complicated and minimally understood. White matter, however, is much easier to understand. It is possible to develop ways of strengthening the mylin sheet, thus protecting White matter from decay.

Read more about this at http://tinyurl.com/25swm5e.
Alzheimers is also effected by the amount the brain is put to use, which is why brain games, reading, and education are so important. So get your daily KenKens on at www.kenken.com!

Enhancing Brain Power through Mind Puzzles

2010-06-28T11:53:00.003-04:00

KenKen, Crosswords, Sudoku, and other mind puzzles are all over the place, but why? Mind puzzles enhance your brain activity, and make you sharper in many ways.

Top reasons why KenKen, and other puzzles, are great for your brain.

1) They enhance your reasoning skills and help you focus on details.

2) Puzzles like KenKen teach you how to use deduction, eliminating wrong answers to find the correct one.

3) Keeps your logical abilities in tact.

4) Improve problem solving skills, a skill set that will be very important in years to come (depending on your age of coarse).

5) Playground for bragging rights. Beating a friend by a couple minutes on a 6x6 KenKen surely earns you a days worth of bragging.

6) Puzzles like Crosswords, and mechanically demanding problems, help you gain new knowledge in addition to the thrill of solving it.

7) Great tools for at-home teaching, or use as a review in the classroom.

8) Puzzles in general help generate faster thought processes. As you continue to play more puzzles, your mind gets sharper, and faster.

Have something to add? Leave a comment.

KenKen Classroom

2010-06-25T12:08:00.000-04:00

KenKen has a program that focuses on the classroom, ie KenKen Classroom. This program provides teachers with weekly puzzles, age appropriate, to be distributed to their class. We also provide lesson plans each month that fit seamlessly into your day. Through testimonials, we know that teachers find this very helpful.

Because the academic year has come to an end, you will not immediately receive weekly KenKens. However, over the summer we will send you an example lesson plan, and a bunch of free puzzles to help keep your mind sharp!

To read more about this program, and to sign up, follow this link: http://kenken.com/signup/teacher.php.

After talking with a principle from a NYC private school, we agreed that KenKens can be used to boost self-esteem in students. For a few months, this principle distributed 4x4 KenKens to his students. For the first couple of days, students learned how to go about solving the puzzles, understanding the logic, and began finishing them with little assistance in no time. Though some students may have been ready to move onto 5x5's or even 6x6's, the feelings of accomplishment when finishing a 4x4 in under a minute is unforgettable. These are the moments that make a student feel on top of the world, ready to attack any problem. That is the feeling that teachers strive for, a feeling that creates motivation to do better.

The following video clip is a short interview at the NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) conference:

Enjoy!

Play kenkens at www.kenken.com

10 Easy Ways To Make Children Smarter

2010-06-24T13:58:00.004-04:00

From breast feeding to video games, this top ten list breaks down a bunch of easy ways you can make your child smarter. There are no magic pills or programs involved, just simple, at-home tips for the average parent. As you can see, mind and brain games make their appearance on this list. Anything that gets your mind thinking, using logic, will enhance your learning capabilities.

1) Love and Self-Esteem Improve Academic Performance

2) Breast Fed Babies Are Smarter

3) Proper Nutrition Improve Health And Nerve Conduction

4) Exercise Benefits Intelligence And Personality

5) Proper Breakfast Improves Attention At School

6) Musical Training Improves IQ Into Adulthood

7) Some Video Games Enhance Mental Acuity

8) Mind Games Do More Than Entertain

9) Reading Improves Both Creativity And Logic

10) Nurturing Curiosity Creates An Open, Absorbent Mind

Read more about this article @ http://tinyurl.com/2e7prds

Show your kids fun games at KenKen.com!

KenKen v. Sudoku

2010-06-22T12:00:00.000-04:00

Good afternoon people!

Just wanted to vent a little bit. Im a pretty normal college student working my summer job trying to spread the about KenKen, but I have found myself getting sucked in. My friends give me s*** for playing KenKens all the time, which makes annoying notifications pop up in their facebook mini-feeds. This obviously ends up in a conversation about "why is KenKen even a cool puzzle to play?" I'm not trying to sell anything here, or make it sound like a commercial, but whenever I have to compare and contrast KenKen to Sudoku I want to blow my brains out. It is completely different than Sudoku, aside from the fact that it looks the same, and has one similar rule to it (no repeating #s in a column or row). What about comparing lacrosse and soccer? Completely different, except the feild the same and has one similar rule (the ball must go in the net to score). Either way, the two are so different, and if anyone agrees with me that it is annoying to try to explain the differences, over and over again, especially to people who don't have experience with either, stand up and be heard!

KenKen Fathers Day!

2010-06-20T11:22:00.000-04:00

Did you guys forget it was fathers day?! Well if you did, you ken get him some awesome kenken games and puzzles to make his mind grow so he can think of ways to make you get him better presents. Bad sons and daughters. http://www.amazon.com/Goliath-70512-KenKen/dp/B00200JWR0. Anyway, fathers day is a bit awkward of time dont you think? There is always a BBQ going on, but as most people know, the man runs the grill. So what if the man this time, feels like lying on his ass doing nothing (since its fathers day)? You'll end up with a sub par BBQ with no way of getting mad at the dad for not BBQing. So, what you do, obviously, is get your dad some awesome BBQ-ing supplies, so he has to get up off his butt and do some grilling! Its just like when you buy your brother or sister some awesome video game that you clearly want more than they do, just so you can play it when they arent around. Little benefits to yourself never hurt.

Anyway, for our fathers day today, we decided to make lobster rolls. I guess I dont really have that BBQ problem, but im sure some of you guys do. The problem I have is that I don't like seafood, so im going to end up eating a hot dog, awesome.

Both of our grand fathers are coming around this afternoon as well, to celebrate being the "original" fathers of our family. SO, thinking to make them feel especially old and special, we decorated two throne like chairs in beads and red sheets, and set only their places up to look like royalty. Ill get a picture of that up here after this day is over.

I hope everyone has a great save holiday today!

KenKen I Phone App!

2010-06-19T09:23:00.002-04:00

KenKen Press

2010-06-17T14:58:00.000-04:00

KenKen is the most popular puzzle craze since Sudoku. It combines the logic of a Sudoku puzzle with arithmetic. You have to add, subtract, multiply and divide to arrive at the numbers given in KenKen puzzle.

In KenKen, like Sudoku, there is a grid of 4×4, 6×6, 8×8, or 9×9 cells. Meaning the grid has 16, thirty six, sixty four or 81 cells. The puzzle will truly be even larger, however those are for really advanced solvers. In each types of puzzles, you want to have all the digits in one row. In different words, if a row has 4 cells, like in a sixteen-grid puzzle, you must use the numbers 1-4 in every row, and in each column. No digit could be omitted of row or column, nor may there be duplicates in an exceedingly row or a column......

Read more at: http://www.articles-direct.co.uk/how-kenken-puzzles-can-help-you-learn-math/

Videos

2010-06-15T11:12:00.001-04:00

We are in the process of ideating video commercials about the KenKen puzzle. I am compeltely open to suggestions, I'd rather see humourous ideas but all are welcome. So feel free to post ideas in response to this comment!

Monday the great

2010-06-14T11:05:00.000-04:00

Good morning monday!

Not much to say about this awesome morning. Its dark and droopy outside, cool and relaxing inside, and nice and boring at my small desk. I have been put on a team of people working to correct the mistakes of last week. Somehow, the solutions to last weeks puzzles (June 6, Sunday NYTimes Mag.) were printed incorrectly, leaving us with the fun filled job of finding out where the hell that puzzle came from. Normally, I can just look up the puzzle and easily find the solution in our database, but noooo, this one had to be so difficult. I blame global warming, and BP. I either have to solve the puzzle myself, (which will take a very long time considering 30+ avid NYTimes readers/KenKen addicts had trouble enough to send emails) or go through the 20,000+ puzzles and find the correct one. Not to sound like I am whining, because I'm pretty sure ill be able to solve the puzzle on my own, but just wanted to let all of you people who aren't reading this, know that I am doing the best I can to give you the solutions you deserve!

Snipeshot of the Bossman

2010-06-11T16:37:00.002-04:00

www.MathMojo.com

2010-06-11T16:14:00.000-04:00

Check out this video.

This is a great video that walks you through how to do a 4x4 KenKen. Brian Foley does a great job here explaining the strategy and rules for up-in-coming KenKeners. He also has a great website: http://mathmojo.com/kenken. Learn all about KenKen and anything else about math at MathMojo.

Go to kenken.com

2010-06-11T16:02:00.000-04:00

Play Daily Games Here

Hey All You KenKenners!

2010-06-11T16:00:00.001-04:00

I have just switched over the Blogger from Tumblr.

Welcome to the official blog of KenKen, the best puzzle game EVER. For those of you who do not know what KenKen really is, check it out at KenKen.com. The reason I chose to create our blog, is because I feel there is so much to share about KenKen. So this blog is completely open to comments, questions, etc.

For now, if anyone can beat the 5x5 daily puzzle on KenKen.com in under 30 seconds, take a screen shot and submit it.