Today’s post is a guest post from the fab Amy Mia Goldsmith. The post is the ultimate Christmas gift guide to encourage cognitive development in children while still being fun.
Here is a little more about Amy:
Amy Mia Goldsmith is a literature graduate from Melbourne with a lot of different interests in life. Her absolute favorite role is the role of a loving mother. Amy’s daughter Sophie is 5.
Now onto the post:
Best Games to Enhance Logic to Buy This Christmas
If you ask practically any child about their absolute favourite class at school, they will certainly say: ‘Well, not math’. Where does this child’s resistance towards math come from?
Mathematical rules, logical way of thinking, deduction, and mathematical operations are all foreign and strange concepts to children who are unaccustomed to numbers and math, but if you introduce logic games soon enough, they might like them enough to like math at school as well.
Logic games can be a perfect Christmas gift for your child. The following games are fun and entertaining, and will boost your child’s logical thinking skills in an easy and fun way:
1. Sudoku
Sudoku is a numbers puzzle with the simplest rules: write numbers in the box in such way that you don’t repeat two in a same box, line, and column. As simple as sounds, it can be tricky for players to solve the puzzles, and it can excite the mind of both kids and adults.
There are usually three difficulty levels, and when kids start they should perhaps try solving level one puzzles with your help. If your child becomes very good at it, you can try making it more difficult by timing them in a sudoku game online.
2. Math Games Online
If your child is only beginning to learn basic math, adding, subtracting, and perhaps even multiplying and dividing, giving him ordinary tasks to solve can be a bit boring and not so inspiring.
If you turn all of these into a game, it can be a lot more fun for children, and they will be inspired to solve the problems much more quickly.
You don’t have to go through much trouble and come up with different games, there are plenty of fun and interesting math games online which kids can play and become better at solving different math problems.
3. Mastermind
Another simple and yet challenging game that is designed in such way that it helps sharpen logic and deduction powers of the person playing it, Mastermind is a code-breaking game.
The code maker sets the code, and then the player should break it in less than ten moves. Game is designed for children older than 8 years, and it pushes them to use their cognitive skills as much as possible.
Given the fact that there are more than 2000 possible codes, the game seems difficult enough, but for those who are not afraid of challenge, all of these codes can be made even more difficult as one makes progress and moves up in the game.
4. Square Root Puzzle
This game is a true brain teaser with various levels of difficulty.
This is a simple game of sliding-block puzzles, where several pieces of different-sized blocks are placed inside a wooden box.
Among these, there is always a special one which is usually the largest one of all, and that piece must be moved to a special area in the box. The player cannot remove blocks but can only slide them vertically and horizontally. Goals of the game – solve the puzzle with a minimum amount of time or a minimum number of moves, and slide the larger blocks through the slots in the bottom of the tray.
In the easy and simpler games player can make about 63 moves to complete the task, whereas in the difficult levels the number of moves can be as high as 263.
5. Tilt
Player starts with 40 challenge cards, two green and four blue sliders, as well as 6 gray square blocks. Children should try to slide the green sliders through the exit and keep the blue ones on the grid. The good thing is that a child can play it alone or can compete with others by timing them.
Anything that develops your children’s brains and IQ is a good thing, they will learn to think in a different way and start noticing patterns even in simplest things. Mathematics doesn’t have to be boring, cold, and terrifying; it can be challenging, rewarding, and beneficial in many ways.
Games that enhance your child’s logical thinking skills could be the perfect gift this Christmas.
Thanks Amy. Show Amy some love – message her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter and of course, leave her some lovely comments below 🙂
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