A typical scenario that occurs in most households with small children is one in which your child has returned from school, eaten a delectable lunch, and then taken a nap. When your energetic young one gets up, the entire evening is still ahead of him or her, and they are already bored.
Does this situation ring a bell? Do you frequently consider positive ways to interact with him or her?
Here are some ideas and methods that will keep young brains completely occupied while promoting cognitive growth. What better approach to encourage bonding between parents and children than to play games that will stimulate their children’s brains?
It is abundantly obvious from a well-known comment from the esteemed educator Maria Monterssori that when kids are encouraged to look around them, “making use of all that he finds around him, moulds himself for the future.” As a result, we discover that engaging in activities that let kids use their senses helps them further develop and promote a more distinct logical and analytical justification.
Positive or negative experiences a child has during the first few years of life have an impact on how their brain develops. Although every child is born with their own uniqueness, environmental influences can also have a significant impact on how a child’s brain develops. Nature as we currently understand it versus.
Here are a few of the best games and activities that I have successfully utilised both at home and in school to support and enhance cognitive development, drawing on my personal experience as a parent of a 14-year-old and a preschool teacher for the past ten years.
1.Memory Match
A traditional game involves matching graphic cards. It is a memory-based game, and the person with the most pairs of cards and the ability to recollect where the cards are is the winner.
We started playing memory games when my daughter was two years old because she was already pretty familiar with ideas like animals and their young and animals and their habitats. We would place the cards with the animal images turned upside down on one side. Pictures of animal habitats, young animals, and food choice cards would be placed upside down on the opposite side.
Later, this was expanded to include other ideas as well, including constructive behaviours, related items, etc. It’s simple to play a memory match game in preschool as well.
2.What is lacking?
/ Memory Recall (Visual, Auditory, Tactile)
Put a tray with various household goods on it (the more items, the more challenging the game so for younger children start with just 3-4 items and increase from there).
Tell your youngster to examine the items on the tray in detail. Call them all by name (the more you discuss the items the more likely your child is to remember them so you could ask them what colour or shape each item is or what it is used for).
Wrap the objects with a towel. As they do so, take one thing out from under the cover while asking your youngster to close their eyes. Ask them to open their eyes, take off the cloth, and describe the missing item for you! Alternately, request a list of the things.
For those who learn best visually, this game helps to stimulate visual memory. For auditory learners, it can be changed so that you name the objects or words instead of having them displayed. The student must pay close attention while listening and recall as (in the same order to make it more challenging).
By passing objects (in each hand) around a circle and feeling each one, agreeing on a common name, then recalling and listing all the objects, it can be customised for kinesthetic learners.
3.Cracking Codes
As kids work to put the jigsaw pieces together to create the overall image, this is an excellent mental exercise. The difficulty should be gradually increased, starting with a 4-6 piece jigsaw for a nursery learner and progressing to an 8-10 and eventually a 10-12 piece problem. Don’t be shocked if one day your child solves a puzzle with 30 pieces or more.
In addition to picture puzzles, I’ve also utilised opposites, homonyms, things-that-go-together, etc. puzzles, first to identify the correct pair, then as a memory match. Think-provoking puzzles include those that ask “What’s next,” “What’s missing,” and “What’s different.”
The teacher can also create these puzzles and use them in class.
4.Sharing Board Game Time
We used to play board games every afternoon while my daughter was between the ages of 4 and 6 years old. I would constantly be looking for new educational games to add to her library. Candyland, Mastermind, Plot/Connect 4, Chinese Checkers, Guess Who, Monopoly, Kids on Stage, Color Track, Ludo, Scrabble, Cluedo, and many other games are among my all-time favourites.
Playing Connect Four, for instance, pushes players to think ahead and hunt for opportunities to connect 4 discs. It also offers the chance to spot patterns. It triggers the forecasting of the results of a different course of action.
Children learn how to plan each move in Chinese Checkers so that they can get their nine counters to the other side before the other players do.
A description-based elimination game is guess who. To be the first person to correctly guess the character, you must ask the right questions. This can be used as a game in the classroom as well. The kids must cooperate and demonstrate good listening abilities.
Students can use Mastermind in the classroom or lab to discuss scientific reasoning, create efficient experiments, and improve their logical thinking skills.
We’ve played a variety of board games in class as well, with variations like sight word tic tac toe, sight word snakes and ladders, CVC word ludo, etc.
5.Memory-improving mobile games
I find it to be the ideal time to play games like I Spy and memory games like names of flowers, birds, animals, and places while I’m driving or in a park.
Children are required to name something that no one else has before identified. In order to add to the list, they must also reiterate the items mentioned earlier. Their knowledge and memory power both increase as a result.
Another game that can be played is tic tac toe. Early strategy development and logic application are aided by it for kids.
Around the time they are six, you can introduce them to the Name, Place, Animal, and Thing classic game that most of us played as kids.
Later on, they might still be interested in games like What’s the nice word or Guess the personality in 20 Questions.
6.Brain Games to Rewire the Brain
Brain training exercises boost memory and cognitive ability. traditional brain games that stimulate the mind:
Rubik’s cube, Rubik’s Race, Chess, Lego-blocks, Tangram, and an electronic board game that involves matching flags and countries
7.Develop Your Brain With Word Games
Word games (as well as puzzles, board games, and similar activities) draw our attention, encourage us to form new connections, and enable us to think creatively.
Crossword puzzles, word searches, word unscramblers, riddles, Scrabble, Boggle, hangman, and taboo
These games cause the brain’s language and word-finding regions to become engaged, forcing the brain to work and exercise.
We make use of the most of these in school as well to improve student learning.
8.Making Use of Technology
Numerous instructional video games are available online. I think technology can enhance teaching and learning, not replace it, but why not save a few memory games and concept-related educational games? For quizzes, Kahoot is my choice.
Children learn the play manner method in preschool. It would be wonderful to incorporate brainteasers that both make learning fun and stimulate thinking. The lesson plan can incorporate these.
In the classroom, we play games using manipulatives like the clever-cube and the logico piccolo.
We offer games and activities including maze chase, spot the difference, find the odd one out, treasure/scavenger hunts, and Intertable quizzes.
There are countless games and pursuits to choose from. It’s crucial to keep young minds stimulated. It all comes down to how creative one can be and how to share that creativity with our children in order to foster their own creativity and cognitive development.
