It is true: over the summer months, students can lose up to 60% of the math and reading skills that they learned during the previous year. How can a parent prevent academic decline while keeping summer fun? Try some on line mazes and other games together. ;

Krazydad.com has over 1000 mazes in each of the following levels: easy, intermediate, challenging, tough and super tough as well as animal shaped puzzles for younger children.

For a twist on the usual maze concept try a Slitherlink. The puzzle consists of a grid of dots, with some cells containing numbers as clues. Connect horizontally or vertically adjacent dots to form a meandering path that forms a single loop without any branches and without crossing itself. The clue numbers indicate how many lines surround a particular cell. Empty cells may be surrounded by 0-3 lines.

Amazing Art provides three sample puzzles from their Amazeing Art maze book. The Assyrian Winged Bull, a replica of a statue at an opulent royal palace, is simply superb and would be a classy edition to the art gallery on any refrigerator. Links to the stories behind the monuments featured in the book are available on their site.

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