12 Brain Teaser Puzzles for Kids That Will Leave You Scratching Your Head

Ever heard a brain teaser that left you feeling bewildered? You wonder you ponder, you speculate but each answer you come up with seems as unlikely as the previous one.  

But hey, that’s what makes brain teasers such fun! If a brain teaser was too easy to figure out, it wouldn’t be doing its job! And a brain teaser’s job (as the name suggests!) is to tease your brain.

Mind Teasers Require Lateral Thinking

A brain teaser is designed to get you to think outside the box. Too often, we examine things from a practical, logical perspective. To find the right answer to a mind teaser, we have to exercise something called lateral thinking.

Lateral thinking is a method of problem-solving that utilizes a creative, non-linear approach. At first, the answer seems obvious. But think again. To find the correct answer, you have to get a little more imaginative. Step by step logic won’t do the trick here.

12 Brain Teasers for Kids With Answers to Test Your Creativity

Ready for some challenging brain teasers? These ones are suitable for all ages!

1. A farmer has 17 cows and all but nine die. How many cows are left?
2. What seven-letter word has hundreds and hundreds of letters in it?
3. How far can a fox run into the woods?
4. John’s mother had four children. She named the first child Monday. She named the second child Tuesday, and she named her third child Wednesday. What is the name of her fourth child?
5. A plane crashes on the border of France and Germany. Where do they bury the survivors
6. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world
7. Which weighs more? A pound of feathers or a pound of bricks
8. You are driving a bus. At the first stop, two men get on. Second stop and three women get on, one man gets off. At the third stop, three kids and their mom get on, and a woman gets off. The bus is grey, and it is raining outside. What color is the bus driver’s hair?
9. What are the next three letters in this sequence? J, F, M, A, M, J, J, A, __, __, __.
10. There are 3 pears sitting on a table and you take away 2. How many do you have?
11. How many two cent stamps are there in a dozen?
12. Two mothers and two daughters went out for lunch. Everyone ate a sandwich, yet only three sandwiches were eaten in all. How is this possible?

Brain Teasers for Kids With Answers (12 Brain Teasers for Kids: Answer Key)

Spoiler alert! Here are the answers to the brain teasers:

1. Nine cows.
2. Mailbox.
3. Halfway. Then the fox is running out of the woods.
4. John, she only has four children!
5. You don’t bury survivors!
6. Mt. Everest!
7. They weigh the same – a pound.
8. Whatever your hair color is – you’re the bus driver.
9. S, O, N. The letters represent the months of the year.
10. Two! You took them!
11. A dozen.
12. There were only three people at lunch: a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter.