10 Kids Games to Exercise the Mind

With fitness experts so up in arms about how kids today just sit around playing games, it’s nice to think about how beneficial games can be. Not just any games, but those that stretch their silly putty. Check out 10 kids games to exercise the mind.

1. Matching games: We all grew up with these games, but now they have turned into big business. I believe every cartoon character has a version of the memory game. If you grew up under a rock and are not familiar with this game it’s very easy and can be played in several ways. The cards are flipped face down in a grid formation on the table or other flat surface. When it’s your turn you choose two cards to turn face up. The object of the game is to have the most matches at the end of the game. If the two cards you turned up match then you pick them up and keep them in your spot, but if they don’t match you must turn them face down again and remember where they were so when you turn up the match you can remember where it was.
2. Sudoku: This game is also played with a grid, but you have to get these puzzles premade in a book or on the internet. The idea is to fill in the open spots on the grid. There are 3×3 grids where you must fill in 1-9, but then the hard part comes when those smaller grids are part of a bigger grid and you have to also have each vertical and horizontal line contain 1-9. There can be no duplicates. The preprinted games come with some of the numbers already filled in for you and you do the rest. This game can grow with your child because it comes in many levels of difficulty.
3. Mazes: These have also been around literally forever, but in their current format as long as we’ve had printed paper. The object of the game is to start at the entrance and make it through the maze to the end. These also come in books or you can print them online. Just like in Sudoku they come in various degrees of difficulty and can grow with your child.
4. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box: This is probably the newest game on this list. This game is a game for the Nintendo DS and has a video element where the professor is riding on a train to try to figure out what happened to a friend of his. The train is filled with many different kinds of puzzles. After you solve a puzzle you get a jigsaw piece that will help you solve the bigger mystery at the end of the game. This game will give your child (or you) hours of enjoyment that is exercising their mind at the same time.
5. Jenga: This game is usually made of wood and it’s a stacked tower of different sizes of wood. This game works on spatial awareness because you must pull individual pieces of wood out of the tower without knocking the whole tower down. It probably also uses some hand/eye coordination as well.
6. Mystery jigsaw puzzles: Jigsaw puzzles are fun all on their own and many people find them very relaxing. I’m not one of them. However, they have come out with a twist on the old classic. Now you have to put the puzzle together in order to gather the clues in order to solve the mystery or crime at the end. There are many versions of these types of puzzles on the market, but it might be a fun activity for the whole family.
7. Clue: This is a board game that has been around for ages. While travelling around the board you ask questions of your fellow game players and try to determine who committed the crime, where they committed it and with what weapon they used. It’s a lot of fun and really makes you think.
8. Checkers: This strategy game has been around literally forever. There are variations of checkers recorded as early as 1100 A.D., but it is believed to be older than that. This game is played on an 8×8 gridded board with opposite colors. The object is to diagonally jump your opponent and take his playing piece. If you make it to the opposite side of the board you are “kinged” and you can now move your piece forward or backward.
9. Rubik’s cube: It was invented in 1974 and it was a really big craze in the 80’s. This colorful cube is mechanical and you can rotate the rows of mini cubes on the big cube. The object is to get each side of the cube to be all the same color. It is very difficult to do and really exercises the mind because you have to think several steps ahead.
10. Word searches: These fun puzzles have words hidden amongst other letters. The idea is to find the real words within the extra letters and circle them. There are various degrees of difficulty in these and they can be printed online or you can even make your own with some help from online programs.

Taken From Share a Nanny