The brain is a fascinating organ, complex and full of possibilities. Babies are born with an immature brain, which will gradually develop, forming new neural connections and gaining plasticity through the stimulation, care and learning.
One of the ways children have to learn is through play. While the child plays his brain activity triggers, becoming a powerful learning tool that will favor these neural connections. Today we propose simple projects and games that will help to exercise the minds of the little ones while having fun.
Games to train memory
Memory accompanies us since we were born and develops throughout our lives, becoming a fundamental tool in our day to day. That is why it is so important to exercise it daily and stimulate it in children properly so that they achieve agility that helps them, not only throughout their academic stage, but also throughout their lives.
Through the game we can exercise the memory in a fun way. We propose some examples:
- The couples game: It is a classic card game that contains equal couples. All cards are placed face up and left a few seconds for players to observe and memorize. Then they turn around and the players, in turns, must raise the cards two by two until they find the pairs they have memorized.
The best thing about this game is that You can practice with children since they are very young, and as in the market there is a great variety that you will find the theme you like best: animals, cartoons, objects, movie characters ...
- Domino: To play dominoes with younger children, it is best to use, or create ourselves, a dominoes with illustrations instead of points, as is the classic we all know. The dynamics of the game are similar and will consist of joining the pieces matching the illustrations.
This game is also suitable for children from an early age and, like the previous one, you can choose the theme you like best. With this type of domino they will learn to work visual and spatial memory.
Games to train logic and mathematical thinking
Logic and mathematical thinking have to do with the ability to work and think in numerical terms, understand abstract concepts and use reasoning and logic to solve problems. An adequate stimulation will favor the development of this type of intelligence so important in everyday activities.
Mathematical intelligence games teach the child, from an early age, to understand concepts and look for relationships between them, using calculation or hypotheses. We propose some examples:
Sudoku: Sudoku are challenging and require a mental effort to solve them, in addition to observation, memory and concentration. From the age of six, children can begin to solve simple sudoku and gradually increase the degree of difficulty.
Mathematical operations: We can promote math skills in children through games of operations using, for example, wooden strips, abacus, dice or Lego blocks.
Another game of mathematical operations that we can practice in any place and with the help, simply, of paper and pencil, consists in randomly selecting a number of several figures and on the other hand several numbers of a figure. The objective of the game is get closer to the chosen number using various mathematical operations made with loose numbers. We will adapt the difficulty of the game to the child's age and the amount of mathematical operations that he knows how to handle.
- Logical deductions through cause and effect: There are many types of daily activities and available to all that we can do with children from a very early age, so that through experimentation, manipulation and observation they deduce for themselves the reason for things.
For example, we can show you the changes that water undergoes when it undergoes different processes, or study the passage of the seasons of the year through the observation of deciduous plants.
- Object Classification: A fun and simple activity to do with children since they are very young is the classification of objects attending to common characteristics.
We can use, for example, building blocks and group them by color or size, or toy animals that we will group according to the number of legs they have, their color or other characteristics of the animal kingdom that children have already learned according to their age and understanding.
We can also resort to classification of everyday objects that we have at home such as buttons, clothespins, empty cardboard containers ... or anything else we can think of and that our children can handle well depending on their age.
- Puzzles, puzzles, rubik's cube: With these games, children will not only be working on logical thinking, but also fine motor skills, hand and eye coordination and visuospatial skills.
Treasure hunt: It consists of hiding an object somewhere in the house and helping the child find it by means of solving puzzles that provide clues. This simple game really likes children and helps them train various skills such as logical thinking, problem solving, memory and attention.
Strategy games: These types of games encourage ability to reason about the goal to be achieved and the way we have to plan the play to reach it. A clear example of this type of games would be chess, which we have already talked about and that brings so many benefits to children.
Games to train verbal intelligence
Verbal intelligence has to do with the reading ability, oral and written expression and the skills we have when it comes to using language appropriately. Promoting these skills through the game is very simple and beneficial from an early age. We propose some examples:
- Puppet Theater: Making a puppet or puppet theater with your child will not only be helping him improve your oral expressionbut also to encourage your creativity, imagination and empathy. If you wish, you can make simple finger puppets yourself and adapt an improvised stage in your home, or use the puppets sold in stores.
- Word games: The games in which the Written words They are also an excellent way to train verbal intelligence from the age of six. In addition, we can increase the degree of complexity adapting it to the child's age.
For example, the crosswords, the game of chained words or word searches they will also help to exercise the speed of mental processing, concentration and the ability to discriminate stimuli.
- Others language games such as riddles (or the classic Veo Veo), sayings or tongue twisters are excellent resources to improve, among many other things, the process of association of ideas, memory and pronunciation agilityrespectively.
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In Babies and More In which or which of the eight intelligences does your child stand out ?, How to help the development of our baby's brain ?, The child's brain forms a thousand new connections per second in the first three years of life, Five amazing projects to learn by playing
