Discover How Riddles Can Improve Your Child’s Creativity

July 27, 2022 byChristopher E. Nelson

5 min to read

A Parent/Learning Coach and child engaging in a creative activity

Experts agree that riddles are a great way for kids to improve their critical-thinking ability and creativity.

Creativity is the ability to discover new and original ideas, connections, and solutions to problems, according to Britannica.com. Being open and playful is one way to build your natural creativity. When young children are allowed to try out new ideas, new ways of thinking, and problem-solving, it fosters mental growth, according to support material for The Whole Child, a PBS telecourse in early childhood education.

Even the simplest riddles for kids require creatively thinking outside of the box. To solve riddles, children must recognize that words sometimes have multiple meanings, that human characteristics sometime apply to animals or inanimate objects, and that the obvious conclusion could be wrong.

Children who spend time wrestling with riddles tend to learn to focus and think outside of the box. And when a young child works a riddle that relies on a play on words, they’re likely exposed to new words and new ways to use them while subliminally learning about the rhythm of language and how words rhyme.

Riddles, and more importantly the laughter they can evoke when shared, are also great for bonding. Many children form lasting friendships based on a shared sense of humor. Laughing together over the incongruities and absurdities of riddles and other humor creates a shared understanding and closeness in childhood, experts say.

As a Learning Coach, riddles can serve you well too. “When students hear riddles, they will begin to make associations, link what they are learning in the classroom, and come to conclusions about things they already know,” first-grade teacher Sara Ipatenco says on the Bored Teachers blog. “For example, a riddle about the moon might connect something your students are learning about in science class. Even if your riddles aren’t educational, the simple experience of laughter will increase joy in the classroom, and joyful students are more likely to enjoy school and become deeply engaged in their learning.”

What Makes Riddles Work?

Riddles are a type of lateral thinking puzzles, which involve a dialogue between the quizmaster, who introduces the puzzle, and the solver or solvers, who try to figure out the answer. The solver must find the explanation based on little information, such as a simple question. Lateral thinking refers to solving problems by imagining creative solutions that a person doesn’t arrive at through simple logic or deductive reasoning. 

Still, a riddle must provide certain information, as one guide to riddles for kids mandates. First, you must pose the riddle in the level of language the solver understands. To answer most riddles, your child needs to know what the words in the riddle mean as well as their various applications. Don’t pose a conundrum that is over a child’s head.

Second, help young kids stay engaged. Let them know it’s an animal riddle if the answer involves an animal. Let them know they need to think about numbers when you give them a math riddle. If you’re giving them a particularly tricky riddle, let them know and prod their thinking. If you ask, “What has a head, a foot, and four legs?” you may need to clue them into the idea that “legs” applies to more than animals. (It’s a bed, by the way.)

Finally, a riddle needs to be fun. Note that we did not say “funny.” Recognizing the odd connection that the riddler has made between ideas that don’t normally go together is what makes it a riddle. It can be funny, surprising, silly, or an absolute eye-roller and still work. The creativity required to make out-of-the-box thinking puzzles work is what makes them fun.

There’s no end to the riddles for students of all ages you can find with an online search. It’s good to have a few handy to perk up a homeschooled student whose attention is flagging. Here are a few to share now:

A group of friends share riddles for students.

Simple Riddles for Young Students (Grades K–4)

Q: Which word is always spelled incorrectly in the dictionary?
A: Incorrectly.

Q: Why are teddy bears never hungry?
A: Because they are always stuffed.

Q: Why didn’t the hot dog star in the movies?
A: The role (roll) wasn’t good enough.

Q: What was the elephant doing on the freeway?
A: About 10 mph.

Riddles for Middle Schoolers (Grades 5–8)

Q: What goes around and around the wood but never goes into the wood?
A: The bark of a tree.

Q: What starts with a p, ends with an e, and has thousands of letters?
A: The post office.

Q: Three men were in a boat. It capsized, but only two of the men got their hair wet. Why?
A: One was bald.

Q: What can be as big as an elephant but weigh nothing?
A: An elephant’s shadow.

Riddles for High School Students (Grades 9–12)

Q: How many months have 28 days?
A: All of them!

Q: Two mothers and two daughters go to a pet store and buy three cats. Each gets her own cat. How is this possible?
A: They are a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter. The grandmother is also the mother’s mother, so there are two daughters and two mothers, but only three people.

Q: While walking across a bridge, I saw a boat full of people. Yet, there wasn’t a single person on the boat. Why?
A: Everyone on the boat was married.

Q: What do you get when you cross a fish and an elephant?
A: Swimming trunks.

Want to challenge your online student and create even more laughs? Try your hand at writing your own riddles! And for more fun, check out our article about easy STEM activities to do at home.