Who We Are

What’s Ari’s Garden all about?

Having fun and being creative. Studies show that creativity breeds happiness. In addition, creative thinking helps us solve problems and meet challenges. We all need the ability to think outside the box, to fail sometimes, and then to devise and try new solutions. Puzzles and creative activities teach us to do that.

Who are you?

Jen Funk Weber and Linda Stanek specialize in puzzle-based nonfiction. Jen has a background in psychology and science, and Linda has a background in education and art. We have published eleven books as well as stories, articles, crafts, and puzzles in numerous magazines, on the Web, and for Alaskan lodges, non-profit organizations, wholesale and retail businesses, and educational publishers.

We believe puzzles bring out the best in learners, from the playful appeal puzzles have, to the critical thinking skills they utilize. Give a person a worksheet and it’s work. Give them a puzzle, and it’s a game.

Jen sometimes makes her mother solve a puzzle to find her hidden Christmas present and has more than once written long letters in code. Linda melted a pencil baking a dragon. It was an eraser-clay dragon and, it turns out, a plastic pencil impersonating a wooden one.

What’s with the name “Ari’s Garden”?

“Ari” is short for “Aristotle,” which, according to some sources, means “best of the thinkers.” That’s what we want us all to be.

What better place to Cultivate Creativity and Grow Great Ideas than in a garden?

So why are your activities about animals instead of flowers or vegetables?

Because animals are cool. We like drawing them, watching them, taking pictures of them, learning all sorts of wild things about them, and writing stories and puzzles about them. Our leveled activity pages are all about animals.

But we like flowers and vegetables, too. Maybe we’ll make activity pages about them. We reserve the right to make activities about anything under the sun and beyond it. In the meantime, these pictures are for you.

Are those real carrots?

Yes.

Do they taste like normal carrots?

Yes.