Puzzle Play Software: Mazes (Windows, Mac)

School Zone's clever PUZZLE PLAY SOFTWARE: MAZES teaches children how to make puzzles. Kids get a workbook of 57 colorful mazes and a CD-ROM providing 30 diverse backgrounds on which kids can construct their own maze puzzles. After designing the maze, kids can play it, racing against the clock or a computer character. They can even have friends or family members play it either on the computer or away from it once it's been printed (unfortunately, none of the puzzles can be saved).

Each maze provides the "Start" and "Finish" point. For example, one background is of a tree with a monkey (the "Start") eyeing a banana (the "Finish"). Using the arrow keys or the computer mouse, kids draw the path of their maze from the "Start" point to the "Finish." When they have finished drawing the path through the maze, the computer fills in the rest of the maze with misleading and dead-end pathways.

Puzzle Play Software Mazes is suitable for kids ages 6-8, and it could be used by younger children if a parent or sibling is willing to help. At $7.99, it's a steal because you get both the software and a book of mazes.

By providing children with the tools to become maze puzzle masters, they learn logic and planning while creating the mazes. Kids can also take pride in creating something for someone else to play. This is one of three products that make up the School Zone's Puzzle Play Software & Workbook series, and all three are brilliantly conceived and executed.