Brain Games For Kids

Not every 14 year old can emulate the genius of Delhi boy Sahal Kaushik, who cracked the IIT exams at such a young age. He may be just one in a million, but then, even the sharpest of the brains need constant polishing, and it is even more necessary to work on a healthy brain to keep it ticking in good form for the longest possible time. Most parents like to pass on their unfilled dreams to their progeny as if they were some unfinished inherited business to be realized. But to their surprise, many turn out to be school dropouts, shattering their many hopes, and abruptly terminating their excitement quite early on. But not every school dropout becomes a ‘nobody’, because listed among the dropouts’ hall of fame are all-time greats such as Albert Einstein, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Dhirubhai Ambani and many more. Their inherent talent helped them rewrite not just their lives but also those of millions despite initial setbacks. An agile mind was probably the biggest asset they had, showing how you can also help your child make a great success of his/her life and maybe even change the world by encouraging as many of his/her talents as possible. A healthy mind is all you need to make a difference in this world. In order to make the brain healthy, you will have to keep your child’s brain active. You must be wondering how to your child’s brain can be kept active. Just as running keeps one physically fit, jogging the brain keeps it fit. Give the brain difficult tasks to complete. If all that you need to see in your kid is a new age Albert Einstein, work on his skills by working on his brain. 

Fun Brain Games For Kids
There are many brain games meant to keep the curious minds of children active. 

Computer Games
When every other thing in this world runs on cutting edge technology, you cannot disregard the importance of computers in the lives of Gen-Y. There are quite a number of online games available for your kid to play and tease his brain with. So the next time your kid asks you to upload a new game, do not hesitate as long as it is a game good enough to give his brain a necessary work-out! 

Mechanical Puzzles
Not every kid needs to be computer savvy or interested in computers, so that should be the last reason to let them not play other brain games! You can find brain games such as puzzles in newspapers that can help your kid keep his mental skills well-used. Games such as puzzles help induce the kind of anxiety in children which helps them seek out more information and makes their brains more and more effective. For e.g., disentanglement puzzles can keep your kid very smart because it will use your child’s brain to the maximum in little time. Disentangling a metal or string loop from an object, jigsaw puzzles, dexterity puzzles, sequential movement puzzles, trick vessels, fold puzzles are some examples of such mechanical puzzles that can keep your kid intelligently engaged. 

Crossword Puzzles
This puzzle not only gives the kid a nice time doing it but will strengthen his vocabulary as well. Since crossword puzzles are easily available and you can get a glimpse of it every day in almost every newspaper on the stands, you will not have to spend extra money for getting your kid a game to make his brain work. Ciphers and anagrams are other known word puzzles and can be played as anytime mental exercise. 

Spot The Difference
This is a column that you cannot miss in the dailies, especially if it is a children’s bulletin. If you have ignored it as yet another foolish game, you will be amazed to know how good an exercise it proves to be for your kid’s brain. In this game you will be given two images, which will look alike in the first look but will have some differences if you ponder over them for long. What the player will have to do is to find the differences between both images. It is really interesting! 

Sudoku
For any lover of mathematics who loves to play with numbers, no other game than Sudoku will give a sense of fulfillment. More or less like a mathematical crossword, this game is played with numbers from 1 to 9. 

Rubik’s Cube
Known better as a magic cube, it is another of those 3-D mechanical puzzles that can only be solved with utmost attention. It is not at all as easy as it looks, as you are bound to discover once you get to work on it. But it is fun to get those colored cubes into symmetry. 

Riddles
Unearthing the meanings of riddles has been enjoyed by kids from centuries. There are a number of riddles that you can get from various sources like books and the internet. You can pick up some interesting ones to engage your kid in some constructive, brain-sharpening fun!