In this exercise, you'll learn how to instantly create a word search puzzle that embeds up to dozens of words that have personal meaning for you or the targeted recipients. You'll visit our online puzzle generator and type in your own list of words. Print it out, and you've got a custom word search puzzle. Players will look for your words going across, down, and horizontally. It's a great diversion for a birthday party or a whole class of children.

Materials Computer with an Internet connection Computer printer Paper for printing (plain paper is fine) List of target words. The more personal names you use, the better -- try family names, friends' names, names of schools or places you've visited, or a list of a child's favorite possessions or activities. Instructions Turn on your computer and launch your Web browser. Point your Web browser to http://www.genuineclass.com/games/wordsearch.html. Enter a title for the word search you're creating to make it suitable for the occasion at hand -- for example, "Katie and her friends" or "Some of my favorite things". Next, you can choose the size of the word search grid, from 16 x 16 letters to 35 x 35 letters. The smaller the grid, the easier it will be for players to locate and circle the hidden words. (If your child has a book of word puzzles on hand, you can check the dimensions of the word search puzzles he or she is currently solving.) Now enter each word as prompted on its own line in the text box. I recommend saving your word list as a text file you can open in a word processing program, then copy and paste to the word search puzzle generator. If you return later to create another word search puzzle using this list, you'll avoid having to retype all of the terms. Capitalization is not important since all letters will appear capitalized. You may choose to enter up to 50 words. The more words you enter, the more absorbed the players will be in finding all the terms. Click the Hard Search or Easy Search radio button as a general guideline in generating the word search. Older children or those who are very familiar with this type of word puzzle will enjoy the Hard Search option. (An especially tricky option is the "Scrambled words in list" feature, which scrambles the spelling as well -- for most players, stick with the "Normal word list" setting). Click the Submit button to generate your custom word search puzzle. You'll see the game grid followed by the list of search terms you input. Print out enough copies for all participants. You can challenge players to a timed match as a fun (and relatively quiet!) group activity. Or, create several different puzzles for a single child for entertainment during a long train ride or wait during a doctor's visit. We'd appreciate any feedback you may have!