MaeLyn's Musings

School starts next week, and I've been doing a lot of shopping to get all the supplies and clothing that the kids will need for school. To celebrate finally having most of that done, I've made a logic problem for you! See if you can figure out what store I went to on what day, how much I spent, and one thing I bought there. (Please note that logic problems are not indicative of true facts.) I spent more at Office Depot than I did at the store where I bought the pants, but less than I spent at the store I visited on Monday. Of Old Navy and the store I visited on Tuesday, one was where I spent $10, and the other was where I spent $18. Wednesday was neither the day I went to Dollar Tree, nor the day I spent $35. On Thursday, I bought pens at Sam's Club. I spent more on Friday than I did at Sam's Club. Saturday was neither the day I bought pencils, nor the day I spent $20. I bought the graphing composition book the day before the day I spent $8. The six days wer...

  My kids have played so many more games this summer than I ever remember them playing before. Just yesterday, they played: Cheat, Old Maid, Go Fish, Battleship, Connect Four, Hearts, Spoons, The Game That Shall Not Be Named, Top It, Tennis, and Chess. In the last week, they have played all the games above plus: Monopoly, Life, Rack-o, Pit,  Clue,  Operation, Apples to Apples, as well as several other computer games. Yesterday I spent some time straightening the closet where we keep the games. I picked up all the random cards and game pieces that had escaped from their boxes and were cluttering the floor of the closet, and returned them to their homes. I think we have too many games. Either that or just not enough shelving. At any rate, the kids are having fun playing with them!

John and Peter are playing "Cheat". I hear "one jack." "one queen", "one king"... "are you sure that was ONLY one king?" "Yes..... and you know something." *laughter.* "But hold on. DID you cheat?" *sounds of cards being searched through* "You cheated!" This game is played with one deck of face cards, which is dealt out completely to all the players. The players go around in a circle, and the first one is supposed to play aces, the next twos, then threes, etc. As they play, they place the cards face down on the pile, and state the number of cards and the type they are putting down. The first person to get rid of all their cards is the winners. The problem is, that if it is a players turn to play threes, and they have no threes, they must lie and put down some other card instead. Some players may cheat by putting more cards down than they say they are playing. If they are caught cheating in the act, howe...

Yesterday morning, I received a call from a brother from church. He told me that his two children who were visiting from college or wherever they are now had come home and had cleaned out the piles of junk in his basement and storage room, and that he was going to give a whole bunch of stuff to the local ARC, but if we wanted, we could come over that evening and look through it, and we could have anything we wanted. I'm always a fan of free stuff, so last night Steven and I drove over to his house, where he was out in his garage dismantling a TV stand. Half of his two car garage was full of boxes and bags. There was a huge television, stuffed animals, baskets, dishes, videos, games, decorations, water bottles, about a five-lifetime supply of toothpicks, three Christmas trees, enough decorations for five Christmas trees, and enough lights for at least three houses. Steven and I picked through it, and eventually brought home two games: Monopoly (Deluxe Edition) and Life, one Christ...

A game which several members of our family enjoy playing is Apples to Apples . In this popular game, there are green apple cards that have descriptive words written on them (eg. dainty, intelligent, sensitive) and there are red apple cards that have places, events, or things on them (eg. going to the dentist, rolling the car, bombs, inside the sun.) Each player is dealt five or seven red apple cards. For each round, one player is designated as the judge. He or she turns over a green apple card from the deck, and all the other players submit one red apple card from their hand to be judged. They place them face down on the table so the judge doesn't know who submitted which card. The judge then looks at the cards and determines which of the red apple card best fits the green apple card. (eg. Going to the dentist might be judged the most intelligent of the four red apple cards mentioned.) The player who submitted the chosen red apple card gets to keep the green apple card, and the fir...

Several days ago, Josh gave me a slip of paper with some information written on it, and told me to make a logic puzzle out of it. So here it is: Josh created a remote control for his rocket. Can you figure out what color each button is, and what it does? The button to launch the rocket is directly above the button that sets the rocket on fire. The button that smashes the rocket is not the grey button in the top left corner. The brown button is directly to the left of the button that floods the rocket. The yellow button destroys the rocket. The red button is directly to the right of the white button. The button that destroys the rocket is on the same side of the controller as the blue button. The button that rebuilds the rocket is directly below the blue button.

Five members of the Hiatt family attended a concert in which Hannah performed. They sat in one row, with no spaces between them. Can you figure out what order they sat in and what color each of them wore? Peter neither sat next to Joshua, nor did he sit next to the person wearing green. The person in yellow is somewhere to the right of the person wearing red. The person wearing blue sat immediately to the right of John. MaeLyn sat somewhere to the right of Steven. Steven is not sitting next to the person in purple. Peter did not wear yellow. John is somewhere to the left of the person in red. MaeLyn wore purple.

Here is another logic problem for you. Figure out each person's favorite dessert, favorite movie and favorite number. The six people are: The person who likes cheesecake, the person who likes “Monsters University”, the person who likes #9, Joshua, the person who likes Chocolate chip cookies, and the person who likes #3. John likes #7. The person who likes “Aladdin” also likes to eat brownies. Between Peter and the person who likes “Muppet Movie”, one likes donuts and the other likes #88. MaeLyn is either the person who likes oatmeal raisin cookies or the person who likes “How to Train Your Dragon.” Joshua does not like brownies or #88. The person who likes “Music Man” does not like #89 or chocolate chip cookies. Steven likes #17.5. The person who likes chocolate also likes #88. Neither Hannah nor the person who likes chocolate chip cookies likes “The Lightning Thief”. The person who likes “Aladdin” does not like #3. John does not like cheesecake. The person who likes “...

This week our family checked out " Monsters University " from the library and got to watch it for the first time. I enjoyed watching it, and it inspired a new logic problem: Monsters! Figure out each monster's name, color, special feature, and number of eyes (between 1 and 5).  1. The five monsters are: Ponzi, the monster with 5 eyes, the monster with the tail, the yellow monster, and the monster with two heads. 2. Art is not the monster with horns. 3. Bongo has more eyes than Theodore. 4. Of Herbert and the monster with horns, one is red and the other has only one eye. 5. The purple monster does not have a tail. 6. The red monster has one more eye than the two headed monster. 7. Of the red monster and the monster with three eyes, one has tentacles and the other is Art. 8. The green monster has more eyes than the monster that breathes fire. 9. The blue monster has only one eye. Click here for the chart.

This one is challenging, but I guarantee that it is possible! Of John and the person with the beige luggage, one would like to live in Japan and the other would like to visit Orlando. Of the person who would like to live in Virginia and the person who would like to visit Paris, one has blue luggage and the other is MaeLyn. Of the person with the brown luggage and the person who wants to live in Quebec, one would like to visit Paris and the other is John. Of Hannah and the person who would like to visit Nepal, one wants to live in London and the other has blue luggage. Joshua has green luggage. Of the person who would like to visit Nepal and the person who would like to visit California, one has green luggage and the other would like to live in Japan. Of Peter and the person who would like to visit Brazil, one wants to live in Denver and the other has black luggage. Print out a chart here.

The six members of the Hiatt family each arrived home, got a snack, and did a different activity. Can you figure out what order they arrived, what each person ate and what activity each person did? 1. Hannah came home some time before the person who had bread for a snack. 2. The person who played outside came home immediately after the person who had a cutie. 3. Steven was the last person home. 4. MaeLyn came home immediately before the person who ate the ham sandwich. 5. Between MaeLyn and the person who drew a picture, one ate a cutie and the other came home 3rd. 6. The person who drew a picture came home sometime after the person who ate Craisins, but before Joshua. 7. Peter came home sometimes after the person who used the computer, but before the person who ate a granola bar. 8. Joshua did not eat the granola bar. 9. The person who read a book came home immediately before John, who used the computer. 10. Joshua is neither t...

Here is an easy one: Each of our four cats went outside a different number of times this morning. Can you figure out what each cat looks like (one is orange with no white at all), how many times (between 1 and 4) each cat went out and what each cat did to let me know he wanted to go out? Lala went outside fewer times than the cat that waited for someone else to go out. The cat who sat by the door when he wanted to go out did not go out 3 times. The black cat went outside two more times than the cat who stared at me until I opened the door. Ishmael went out more times than Momo, but fewer times than the cat who sat by the door. The orange cat with the white nose went outside more times than the cat who scratched the couch when he wanted to go out. The four cats are the orange cat with the white belly, Abish, the cat that waited until another cat wanted to go out, and the cat that went out 3 times. A chart is available here.

Another attempt at a Clue based Logic Puzzle, this one is more like a normal logic problem: Mr. Body was found murdered! Can you figure out where each of the suspects were, what he or she was doing at the time of the murder, and what the suspect was holding? (One suspect is Mrs. White, and one room was the ballroom.) 1. The suspect in the kitchen had the candlestick, but the suspect in the dining room did not have the revolver. 2. Colonel Mustard was exercising, but not in the kitchen. 3. Mr. Green, the suspect with the rope, the suspect who was exercising, Miss Scarlet, the suspect who was painting, and the suspect in the library were all different people. 4. Of the suspect with the wrench and the suspect who was rehearsing, one was Mrs. Peacock and the other was in the dining room. 5. Colonel Mustard had a weapon that preceded that of Mr. Green’s alphabetically. 6. The suspect with the knife was painting, and the suspect with the wrench was not re...

Joshua invented a time traveling machine with five controls which do different things, but don't always work. Can you figure out what each control does, what color it is, and what Josh has to do to make it work? 1. Of the button and the control that stabilizes the machine, one is orange, and the other must be talked into working. 2. Of the blue control and the one that requires a snap of the fingers, one control opens the doors and the other is the lever. 3. The knob is either yellow or the control that sends Josh traveling through time. 4. Either the switch or the control for traveling through time must be bumped in order to work. 5. The red dial is either the control that must be sung to in order to operate, or the one that opens the doors. 6. Neither the switch nor the control that causes travel through space is the control that must be sung to. 7. The five controls are the switch, the purple control, the control that must be tapped, the control that provides a snack, an...

I really enjoy playing Clue. The other day I had an idea that it might be fun to make a logic problem based on a clue game. I experimented with it over the weekend and came up with this: Can you figure out which cards each player has, as well as the solution? Each player was dealt three cards. No one received more than one suspect card, or one weapon card, and no more than two room cards. Guess 1: Miss Scarlet, knife, ballroom - Joshua and Steven had nothing, Hannah did. Guess 2: Mr. Green, wrench, billiard room - Steven and Hannah had nothing, Peter did. Guess 3: Prof. Plum, rope, dining room - Hannah and Peter had nothing, John did. Guess 4: Mrs. Peacock, candlestick, lounge - Peter and John had nothing, MaeLyn did. Guess 5: Col Mustard, lead pipe, library - John and MaeLyn had nothing, Joshua did. Guess 6: Prof Plum, revolver, hall - MaeLyn and Joshua had nothing, Steven did. Guess 7: Prof Plum, rope, study - Joshua and Steven had nothing, Hannah did. Guess 8: Col Mustard...

(I created this puzzle on Friday but didn't have time to post it before I had to pick up the kids from school.) The Hiatt family gathered in a circle for Family Home Evening to play a game, each holding a different stuffed animal, after which each family member ate a different number of cookies for dessert. The person who ate three cookies sat across the circle from the person with the unicorn. Between the person in position 4 and the person with the bear, one had one cookie and the other was John MaeLyn sat two seats away from the person who ate 5 cookies. The person with the monkey ate three cookies more than the person in seat 5. Steven was the person in seat 6. Hannah sat in a higher number seat than Joshua, who had neither a frog nor a robot. The person with the robot ate one more cookie than the person in seat 2. The person with the frog ate 4 cookies. The person with the cow sat between the person who ate 2 cookies and Peter. The person in seat 6 ate 3 c...

This one might be a little more difficult. At dinner time at our home, each member of the family has a place where he or she likes to sit. Can you figure out each person's seat, food they don't like, and favorite food? Each side of the table has an equal number of males and females. The person who loves lasagna sits on the same side of the table as the person who hates lasagna. The person who hates spaghetti sits directly opposite from the person who loves Craisins. John is neither the person who hates burritos nor the person who sits in seat 4. The person in seat 2 sits between the person who loves tomatoes and the person who hates BBQ sauce. Steven, who does not like tomatoes, sits directly across the table from the person who loves spaghetti. Joshua sits on the same side of the table as the person who loves BBQ sauce. Peter sits on the same side of the table as MaeLyn, who doesn't like Craisins. Hannah neither likes nor dislikes burritos, but she sits ...