A riddle can be a question with a quick, witty answer; or it can be just a sentence that tickles your brain. It can be easy, difficult or tricky. The fun thing about riddles is that you can have fun with them any time and anywhere you want.
They are also one of the best ways to engage with your children and keep them entertained. But they just don’t do that. They also help stimulate the cognitive function of the brain and in a way helps your kid become smarted.
So if you’ve been looking for an activity to keep your little one busy this week, try out these riddles with them and have an enjoyable time together.
30 Tricky Riddles For Kids: Learn And Enjoy Together!
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1. Four legs up, four legs down, soft in the middle, Hard all around.
Answer: Bed
2. I’m tall when I’m young and I’m short when I’m old. What am I?
Answer: Candle
3.What is at the end of a rainbow?
Answer: The letter W.
4. What begins with T, finishes with T, and has T in it?
Answer: A teapot.
5: When things go wrong, what can you always count on?
Answer: Your fingers.
6: How many letters are there in the English alphabet?
Answer: 18: 3 in ‘the’, 7 in ‘English,’ and 8 in ‘alphabet.’
7. You bought me for dinner but never eat me. What am I?
Answer: Cutlery.
8: What’s really easy to get into, and hard to get out of?
Answer: Trouble
9: What can you hear, but not see or touch, even though you control it?
Answer: Your voice
10: What has lots of eyes, but can’t see?
Answer: A potato
11: What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence
12: What is always in front of you but can’t be seen?
Answer: The future.
13: Where can you find cities, towns, shops, and streets but no people?
Answer: A map
14: What belongs to you, but other people use it more?
Answer: Your name
15: What has hands but doesn’t clap?
Answer: A clock.
16: What’s full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: Sponge
17: The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps.
18: Which travels faster? Hot or Cold?
Answer: Hot. You can catch a cold
19: When you have me, you immediately feel like sharing me. But, if you do share me, you do not have me.
Answer: A secret.
20: I add lots of flavour and have many layers, but if you get to close I’ll make you cry. What am I?
Answer: An onion
21: What has legs, but doesn’t walk?
Answer: A table
22: What can you break, even if you never pick it up or touch it?
Answer: A promise
23: I run along your property and all around the backyard, yet I never move. What am I?
Answer: A fence
24: I have to be opened, but I don’t have a lid or a key to get in. What am I?
Answer: An egg
25: Which is heavier: a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?
Answer: Neither, they both weigh the same.
26: What happens once in a lifetime, twice in a moment, but never in one hundred years?
Answer: The letter “M”
27: What word is spelled wrong in the dictionary?
Answer: Wrong
28: Tom’s father has three sons: Jim, John, and what’s the third one’s name?
Answer: Tom
29: What kind of band never plays music?
Answer: A rubber band
30: What has a neck but no head?
Answer A bottle.
Once you’re done playing, how about teach your kids a bit about the history of riddles too.
The Different Types Of Riddles
Riddle (Photo Courtesy: Pixabay)
Interestingly, the modern English word riddle originates from the same word as read, which means ‘to interpret or guess’. It is a derived noun that was developed into Middle English redel, and later evolved into the meaning of “to understand or interpret symbols.”
Now, there are two different kinds of riddles– enigma and conundrum.
- An enigma is a problem in which the solution is expressed metaphorically. Here, you have to consider the riddle to come up with the solution.
- A conundrum is a question that opens either the question or the answer.
History of riddles
The literary ancestry of riddles dates all the way back to Plato and Aristotle. In ancient Greece, riddles were used to demonstrate wit and wisdom. Theatre is another place where riddles showed up. Interetingly, Shakespeare was famous for using riddles in his work.
The oldest preserved riddle is from ancient Mesopotamia. An ancient Sumerian clay tablet from Lagash (ca. 2350 BC) records the following riddle: “Its canal is A, its god is B, its fish is C, its snake is D. You are looking for a city that lies on canal A, whose local god is B and whose symbolic animals are C and D”.
So there you have it, some cool trivia to share with your children while you solve a few of these riddles. But are these just for fun or do they actually help your kids. Let’s find out.
How Riddles Help Children With Brain Development
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Tricky riddles for kids help to stimulate their imagination and jumpstart a tendency to think wisely. They also help children practice brainstorming for long vocabulary words until they derive the word they’re actually looking for. There are other benefits too.
- Riddles for kids train them to think critically and conceptually
- They should challenge their understanding of language
- They encourage kids to think conceptually about the way they experience the world
- Riddles help kids to learn to think figuratively
A good riddle should be challenging but at the same time keep the curiosity of your child intact. If it’s too tough, he may lose interest. So try to find the right balance and incorporate a few riddles daily to help stimulate their brain and have a little fun at the same time.
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