Building up your brain
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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! |
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Brain Games for Anxiety
If you are feeling stressed or anxious, there are plenty of things you can do with your body to deal with it. Things like meditation, exercise, and healthy eating are all excellent ways to help curb feelings of stress and anxiety.
You may be surprised that playing games can also have a similar effect.
You may be surprised that playing games can also have a similar effect.
Any games associated with critical thinking skills are going to connect your upstairs and downstairs brain.
Studies have found that casual gaming can reduce physiological and psychological stress and anxiety, which is great news for those of you looking for a more accessible way to bring some calm back into your life.
Here are the best games to play to reduce feelings and work those critical thinking skills of stress and anxiety:
Studies have found that casual gaming can reduce physiological and psychological stress and anxiety, which is great news for those of you looking for a more accessible way to bring some calm back into your life.
Here are the best games to play to reduce feelings and work those critical thinking skills of stress and anxiety:
- Do puzzles (legos are puzzles, btw). These games help with spatial relationships, strategy, and problem solving.
- Do brain teasers or riddles to work on problem solving and creative thinking.
- Build Vocabulary with crosswords or word searches.
- Get creative- dance, music, writing, painting, drawing or using your imagination all combine creative thinking and critical thinking skills.
- Learn a new skill or teach a skill to get out of your comfort zone and build up your creative thinking, logical reasoning, and brainstorming muscles.
- Play strategy games like chess or checkers, video games, board games and card games.
- Play number games like sudoku or managing a business to grow your logic skills.
We use all of these more often as the kids get older. But up until 4th grade, kids can only focus for less than 30 minutes at a time, which is like 1/3 of a crossword or 500 piece puzzle. We still use these fun and engaging games to grow the brain that aren't "boring" or "feel like homework" like the above games do.
Getting Creative
Many Halloweens ago, we bought this game because some people didn't like to follow directions. It was a great investment! And it got us thinking, what else could we do that feels like a game but actually builds that staircase between upstairs and downstairs?
We had to get creative with our approach. Really get creative and try to sneak in the learning like when dad put ranch dressing on everything to get kids to eat.
Here's what we did:
Spy/ Ninja Games: (someone here was obsessed with spy kids and Kim Possible)
Spy Case: old poker case and an old art kit case that looked like a briefcase with a handle and latch
Spy ID badge: laminated picture and card created with cardstock on a lanyard
Spy Scanner: rechargeable blinking red bike light (it's silent because spies)
Spy Stuff: magnifying glass, fingerprint duster, invisible ink, decoding kit, notebooks, pens, old cell phone, walky-talky, mirrored sunglasses
Spy/Ninja wear from Dollar Tree and all the various Halloween accessories we accumulated over the year.
Detective, Pirate Treasure hunts, Escape Rooms:
We created a big bag of various ready-to-go clues in numbered envelopes marked Top Secret. The prize (a coupon for free screen time or a toy we "lost" when we didn't clean it up) or treasure (plastic vase fillers in a treasure box from Michaels) were at the end like hide and seek. It's a great way for mom to buy time, especially when there is something cool at the end. Some of the challenges were unlocking 12 locks (drilled holes into a tupperware and locked the locks on) by matching the math equation on the lock to the answer of the key. We took this game on the road to play with cousins at the beach. Some of the treasure is still buried in the sandbox and yard.
Scientist:
This one was easy because mom and dad had a lot of supplies from work. We made a big bin of plastic beakers, tubes, safety goggles, rubber mallets, tweezers, brushes, clipboard and notebook, and a microscope.
The chemists mostly made volcanoes and mixed colored water, the biologists studied interesting things from the yard or collected from our "science walks." They also studied animals by reading books and drawing pictures of their habitats.
The archeologists dug from dinosaurs molded in plaster (from any hardware store, mixed with lots of water, sprinkled with mini dinos or "gems," and left to harden in tupper ware molds.)
There are still some partially excavated dinos buried in the sandbox and around the yard. We had a laminated nature hunt with pictures and words that we took with us on nature walks. We left a clipboard and little notebooks in the science bin to mark our discoveries.
Witch/magician: Pretty much the same as chemist (lots of potions), but the mixing included soil, plants, and various other non-toxic things. The magician set up a show and a stage.
Farmer/ Cowboy, Animal Rescue, Zoo Keeper, Wild Kratts: Again, the costume stuff from thrift stores or dollar tree played a big role in these games. The stuffies and pets were farm, rescue, or zoo animals. Habitats were made, books were consulted, problems were solved, rocks or native wildflower seeds were planted, lasso-jump-rope skills were practiced, tractors were fixed and crops were sold at market.
We created bins with each activity using birthday party supplies, thrift store finds, and the dollar tree. We used the San Antonio Kid's Science Museum as our inspiration: Using pretend play to learn.
We had to get creative with our approach. Really get creative and try to sneak in the learning like when dad put ranch dressing on everything to get kids to eat.
Here's what we did:
Spy/ Ninja Games: (someone here was obsessed with spy kids and Kim Possible)
Spy Case: old poker case and an old art kit case that looked like a briefcase with a handle and latch
Spy ID badge: laminated picture and card created with cardstock on a lanyard
Spy Scanner: rechargeable blinking red bike light (it's silent because spies)
Spy Stuff: magnifying glass, fingerprint duster, invisible ink, decoding kit, notebooks, pens, old cell phone, walky-talky, mirrored sunglasses
Spy/Ninja wear from Dollar Tree and all the various Halloween accessories we accumulated over the year.
Detective, Pirate Treasure hunts, Escape Rooms:
We created a big bag of various ready-to-go clues in numbered envelopes marked Top Secret. The prize (a coupon for free screen time or a toy we "lost" when we didn't clean it up) or treasure (plastic vase fillers in a treasure box from Michaels) were at the end like hide and seek. It's a great way for mom to buy time, especially when there is something cool at the end. Some of the challenges were unlocking 12 locks (drilled holes into a tupperware and locked the locks on) by matching the math equation on the lock to the answer of the key. We took this game on the road to play with cousins at the beach. Some of the treasure is still buried in the sandbox and yard.
Scientist:
This one was easy because mom and dad had a lot of supplies from work. We made a big bin of plastic beakers, tubes, safety goggles, rubber mallets, tweezers, brushes, clipboard and notebook, and a microscope.
The chemists mostly made volcanoes and mixed colored water, the biologists studied interesting things from the yard or collected from our "science walks." They also studied animals by reading books and drawing pictures of their habitats.
The archeologists dug from dinosaurs molded in plaster (from any hardware store, mixed with lots of water, sprinkled with mini dinos or "gems," and left to harden in tupper ware molds.)
There are still some partially excavated dinos buried in the sandbox and around the yard. We had a laminated nature hunt with pictures and words that we took with us on nature walks. We left a clipboard and little notebooks in the science bin to mark our discoveries.
Witch/magician: Pretty much the same as chemist (lots of potions), but the mixing included soil, plants, and various other non-toxic things. The magician set up a show and a stage.
Farmer/ Cowboy, Animal Rescue, Zoo Keeper, Wild Kratts: Again, the costume stuff from thrift stores or dollar tree played a big role in these games. The stuffies and pets were farm, rescue, or zoo animals. Habitats were made, books were consulted, problems were solved, rocks or native wildflower seeds were planted, lasso-jump-rope skills were practiced, tractors were fixed and crops were sold at market.
We created bins with each activity using birthday party supplies, thrift store finds, and the dollar tree. We used the San Antonio Kid's Science Museum as our inspiration: Using pretend play to learn.
Stay Creative
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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 |
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