An active brain is crucial to a child's growth and development. Just like the body, the brain needs to be exercised regularly to develop cognitive skills, enhance memorization capabilities, and develop innovative thinking. Parents and teachers will be glad to know that they can do many interesting and simple brain gym exercises for kids using fun ways to help develop brains.
What are brain gym exercises for children?
Brain gym exercises are small easy activities mostly for preschool-aged children and pre primary children to prepare their brains for the day, release stress, and improve learning. In this article, we will share 10 easy and enjoyable brain gym exercises for students and small kids that can help teachers and parents promote brain functioning in children.
Top 10 Brain Gym Exercises for Kids
Keep these 10 brain breakthrough exercises for children handy and get your kid's brain jumping through hoops towards smartness:
Concentration Span Games
Depending on age, you can place a toy in front of the child and give him or her 30 seconds to memorize what they see. Then hide the toy and ask the child to recall the thing he or she saw. You can do this brain gym activity for a minute or two and check how well they remember. As the child's memory improves, you can increase the number of toys used.
Puzzles
These brain workout games greatly help develop hand-eye coordination, cognitive and problem-solving skills, motor skills, logical thinking, and spatial perception. There are different kinds and varieties of these games, depending on the child's age. Your child can be a part of jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, or even Rubik's Cubes. Other options could include Scrabble, Sudoku, logic games, and Tangrams.
Memory Games
Memory games help improve concentration level and retain the capacity of a child's brain. There are different memory games, and such brain gym exercises with pictures are based on some simple concepts. For instance, play the game of flipping two cards to find a match, if you find a pair, you've earned the right to go again. If you do not, flip them back, and your turn is over. This exciting fun game helps build a toddler's concentration and memory with vibrant stickers or cute pictures!
Physical Games
These are just some of the classic games a kid could have, like playing hide and seek, having treasure hunts, playing ball, running, or racing. These types of easy brain gym games keep their brains sharp since in order to win the game, they must hear instructions and pay attention. The attention span increases and develops spatial awareness in addition to learning self-control.
Blindfold Catch
Another physical game which is very much useful for early brain development. This brain gym exercise would release stress and help the child use their hearing ability in a better fashion. Here you blindfold the kid, and encourage them to find other people in the room. The slow and gradual movement improves mental coordination and attention-based coordination for the child.
Connect to experiences
It is important to use experience in order to make it more personal for your child. When it comes to learning different types of transport, for instance, you could discuss the recent holiday and the modes of transport you utilized (car, plane, boat), so that your child makes a connection with the good memories related to the lesson. In this way, it has a greater chance of coming back to their memory. These kinds of brain gym games also give the sense to your child that learning can sometimes be enjoyable!
Using multiple senses
Make learning a complete sensory experience with this interesting brain gym activity for kids. For instance, when teaching your child about oranges, teach them with all that includes reading about oranges. Let them touch, smell, taste and even count and segment that will be inside and seeds may be counted. By letting them see, hear, touch, and move through processing information, they are likely to have better memory retention.
Double Doodling
It is a bilateral drawing exercise of a child who has to draw two pictures simultaneously with both hands. It stimulates the child equally in the right and left parts of the brain. Children who do this brain gym exercise become ambidextrous and enhance their intelligence levels. This activity greatly enhances the spelling capacity of a child, enhances speed in calculations, and improves the recognition and writing of symbols. This is an exciting brain gym exercise for children.
Family Games Night
Whether it is chess, checkers, or the easiest of card games like hearts, UNO, Go Fish, or speed, it will be a game worth bringing children into the fold. These kinds of brain gym games can bring a child great improvement in the areas of problem-solving, planning, and coordination. Learning teamwork and patience is what children would also realize. Games such as Jenga could very well be an integral part of fostering attention, tolerance, and concentration in five-year-olds or older kids.
Daily Talk Time
Bringing some storybooks and reading to your children, followed by asking questions about the story narrated, is another excellent brain-stimulating exercise. Discussing events and feelings surrounding them, for example, talking about how they felt and also about what the child was thinking or feeling, is a wonderful avenue for bringing children into their emotional development.
As a parent, taking good time out to encourage, teach, and even participate in the aforementioned children's brain activities greatly helps in brain enhancement, positive relationship building, and overall stress reduction. If these cognitive development ideas and parenting tips suit your interest, then you should definitely read more such informative articles by heading out to our Blogs page. Additionally, if you would like your toddler to be a part of a fun-loving mother-toddler program where they would be introduced to multiple brain gym exercises along with other activities, then connect with us to know more about the program.
Wrapping Up
Frequently Asked Questions
In the first month, start with reading almost anything aloud to your baby. At 3 months, switch to colorful picture books containing common objects. Later, develop your own picture book with photographs of familiar faces or objects.
The right combination of play, stress-free lifestyle, healthy nutrition, a regular routine, and reading books help in boosting the child’s brain.
Games such as jigsaw puzzles, chess, sudoku and Rubik’s cube are great for kids’ brain development. Apart from this, brain gym exercises such as double doodling, physical games, concentration games and memory games are also great for the brain development of kids.
You can raise your child’s IQ by engaging them in varied activities. Some of them are playing brain exercises with them, establishing a healthy bedtime routine, letting them make decisions appropriate for their age, and reading to them often.
First and foremost, set a comfortable reading time for you and your child. You can build a mini library at home, let your kid choose which book they want to read, read out loud with actions and expressions to your kid, ask your kid in between what do think will happen next in the story, use picture books, and simply make the reading time a fun-filled activity for you and your child.