It's super important to challenge yourself.
Whether you're learning a new skill, competing in sports, or playing games, the challenge helps your brain grow new connections and build a staircase. Here is a link to a great video that explains the concept of upstairs and downstairs brain and why it's important to social emotional learning. The staircase is the network of neurons and synapses that carry information up and down, to and from the different parts of the brain. Both areas of our brain need to work together for us to function well. The first thing you need to understand is that Social Emotional Learning Skills were developed for this specific purpose. Click on the box to see where social emotional skills line up with our approach to anxiety management. To exercise your upstairs brain and to make the staircase more solid, you need to exercise your brain! |
As the kids get older, we started using apps to help with some of the logic games because logic games and brain teasers are different at every age.
For ages 8-13, the ways to practice critical thinking are to play games like the ones listed to the right. We still emphasize creativity through challenges and games like writing prompts or painting a picture you took on a nature walk. You can find more challenges in Creativity. The most important way to build your critical thinking muscles that you need to solve problems like anxiety is to practice. Play a game every day. Here are some resources to get you started: Links: Brain Teasers Discovery Education “Brain Boosters” puzzle of the week |