“That’s it! I am officially done. The universe must choose either Corona or me!” Shirley cried out loud as she barged into the bedroom. “I wasn’t made for motherhood,” she continued. Joey stared at his wife, taken aback by her dialogues. A woman who’d go cuckoo bananas over random kids in the mall has changed so much over the years. It’s like a 360-degree personality flip, he thought to himself.
While hormonal transformations are a reality, living in a pandemic works deeper than that, and it is tough for all mommies out there. Regardless of the culture, race, and religious background, keeping yourself and kids safe during lockdowns has taken a toll on our mental health.
IFS evaluation of longitudinal data from the Understanding Society study found that taking account of pre-pandemic trajectories; mental health has worsened substantially (by 8.1% on average) due to pandemic.
Children, in particular, may exhibit emotional and behavioral changes under these circumstances. Save the Children surveyed over 6000 children and parents in the US, Germany, Finland, Spain, and the UK. They discovered that up to 65% of the children struggled with boredom and feelings of isolation.
Indulging in creative activities is a great way to fill the hours when going outside isn’t an option. But when you’ve reached your exhaustion point, you need some external support.
Today, smart technology has proven itself as a brilliant surplus to provide us with activities to keep ourselves busy. One area where technology has ushered a revolution by providing surplus activities is the field of education.
It is hard to disregard the positive impact of technology on students’ learning. Even though most parents across the globe blame screens to be the spoiling mechanism, it is the other way round.
Numerous researches have been conducted that prove how games can help children develop healthy behaviors, such as regular exercise, better sleep, and healthier food choices. Some games also promote learning as kids playfully grab new concepts.
Best brain training games to keep kids engaged
Are you looking for brain-stimulating games for your child? If yes, we’ve gathered four best titles for kids of all ages. Let’s have a look:
Minecraft is a popular series of games developed by Mojang Studios. It has no specific goals to accomplish, allowing players a broad margin of freedom to choose how they want to proceed.
In this game, players explore a procedurally-generated 3D world with infinite terrain. They have to gather natural resources like stone and wood, to craft individual blocks. Monsters spawn in the dark areas outside the given radius from the character.
There is a health bar that may deplete due to drowning, suffocation, starvation, falling into lava, etc. When children learn to overcome primary difficulties, they can let their imaginations run wild. They can create worlds with transporters, flying chickens, or rains coming from the ground.
Along the way, they learn engineering, architecture, coding, and math. All in all, it’s a whole package to power up those tiny brain cells.
Pictoword
Pictoword is a puzzle-based app that won The Gold Award in Literacy Apps for 2019 at Serious Play. Endorsements from CNN and Buzzfeed make it even more credible.
The app is easy-to-learn and comes with a video tutorial. The gameplay requires you to “read” two pictures and create a word or phrase through it. It is the game that’s equally addictive whether you’re playing it solo or with the entire family on a tabletop.
Players earn coins for each correct answer and use them on hints to remove or reveal a letter. If you’re hasty (like me!), there is also an option to use coins and skip a level. All these options make it likely that this game won’t frustrate your tiny tots.
Connect the Dots
Connect the Dots by airG MiniMe 500c is yet another game that deserves our attention. In this game, the player has to connect all dots with matching colors. However, they must not cross over the pipes, or else the chain will break.
As the player progresses through the game, the intensity of obstacles will increase. It helps to improve the strategic skills of your child. It is simple and highly beneficial at the same time. Following are a few advantages that it carries:
It helps to improve hand-eye coordination as the child must trace the path correctly
It forces them to think outside the box. If one approach fails, they must look for an alternate.
Tetris Blitz is a puzzle game that is developed by Electronic Arts (EA). It is an action-packed game that requires the player to stack tiles to score maximum points in two minutes.
Tiles of varying geometric shapes fall on the screen, and the young gamers can rotate and move them to fit it all in a puzzle. The target is to create a straight line that stretches from left to the right side of the screen.
It encourages the child to employ the best strategies and try various combinations to rack-up points. They can also boast about their scores on Facebook Leaderboards and show their friends how to BLITZ like the best.
Tetris Blitz can easily make it to the list of highly-effective creative thinking games. The player never loses the game. Instead, the challenge is to clear as many lines as possible within a two-minute timeframe. Above all, the flashing lights and graphical content of this game are addictive.
Wrapping Up
In the recent past, brain games have increasingly become a part of the education sector. Dr. Brian Glass from Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences rightfully believes that cognitive flexibility is not a static trait. One can train and improve it using fun learning tools like gaming.
While most of us are hoping for schools and playgrounds to open up soon, we can’t let our kids’ brains go rusty. We must put together some ways to keep them interested in learning, and should make the experience fun for them.
Kids can learn better and improve their skills by playing these brain-boosting games. Moreover, these games teach them new concepts without them knowing that they are learning. So, no more running after them with books and papers.
We hope article helped you gain some insight into the best learning game you can let your child play to keep their minds up and running. We hope you’ll never have to feel what Shirley is feeling! J
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