As a teacher of mathematics, I find many students struggle with solving word problems. I have developed the following electronic textbook in hopes that it will help students to approach word problems with more confidence.  According to Jon Scott, "in order to become more proficient at solving word problems, you must first become more knowledgeable, skilled, and confident about math in general".  He talks about deconstructing myths, rules and other tools, and attitude.  See Solving Math Word Problems by Jon Scott for a step by step procedure on how to solve word problems and to hopefully disspell some students' fears. John Wingle gives a different method of attacking word problems that he hopes will provide some insight that students can use to be successful in solving word problems.  He uses Sure Math, an easy-to-use problem solving software.
      By making the solving of word problems a fun activity, some students' fears may be dispelled while their problem solving skills improve.  Math Assault I is a talking multimedia math arcade game designed for grade levels 2-7.  It uses colorful graphics, midi music, sound effects, and speech to appeal to students and to make solving math word problems fun.  This game will improve students' word problem solving skills as will Math for Kids, a medieval adventure game in problem solving that was developed by two fourth graders for fourth graders who want to sharpen their problem solving skills.  Math Stories is a house of math word problems for children in grades K-6.  Mathmagic, on the other hand, provides strong motivation for students in grades K-12 to use computer technology while increasing problem solving strategies and communication skills.
     Many challenging word problems can be found on the Internet also.  Finch Math Problems of the Week is a web site designed with grades 3-6 in mind to foster the growth of a mathematics community on the Internet.  Students are challenged with non-routine problems and are encouraged to verbalize their solutions.  The Math Forum Elementary Problem of the Week is a similar website that is also designed for grades 3-6 in mind. Websites designed for the upper grades are Houghton-Mifflin brainteasers and Math Maniac's homepage.  For more websites that will challenge and  help improve the communication and problem solving skills of students in all grade levels see the Problem of the Week homepage.  For a real challenge see
Internet Math Challenge Previous Puzzles.