6 Brain Exercises for Children

As children are growing up they are developingObstacle Courses For The Brain
thinking, as well as behavioral, patterns. Using these 6We all have heard of obstacle courses that require
brain exercises for children is one way to help themphysical exercises, but we can also set up ones that
develop these skills for better functioning and mentalinclude brain exercises for children. An obstacle course
abilities for life.for the brain can combine both physical and brain
Word Searches/Crosswordsexercises, or focus exclusively on the latter. You can
They make many books for kids that contain wordmake stations along a physical obstacle course where
searches and crosswords. These are great activitiesthey can only proceed to the next station after they
for children to exercise their brains by using the focuscomplete a mental task, such as a short crossword
and thinking that they require. Crossword puzzles arepuzzle or word problem. You can also set is up where
also a great family activity, where one person canthey have stations throughout the house where they
read off the clue and tell how many letters arehave to complete a series of mental tasks all lined up
involved and everyone else can guess.along the floor or a table.
Memory ExercisesWrite Or Draw Left-Handed (Or Right-Handed)
Working with memory exercises can be one of theA great way to exercise the brain is to use the
easiest brain exercises for children, since it can benon-dominant hand for writing or drawing. This can be
done in the car while driving or almost anywhere else.fun to see who can tell what was written or drawn
Starting when they are young we naturally do theseafterwards. Another option is to draw a picture where
exercises by teaching them how to spell their names,one-half is done with the dominant hand and then
and what their phone numbers and addresses are.afterwards it is copied onto the other half by the
We can expand on this by having them work onnon-dominant hand. These are brain exercises for
remembering poems, songs, and the names fromchildren that encourage both sides of their brain to
family trees.work together.
Memorizing helps children use their brain to focus andWhile brain exercises for children can be simple and
retain the information. It also is a very useful skill sincefun the payoffs can be huge. By using these brain
a lot of education is based on memorizing, such asexercises the children are learning to exercise an
learning the number facts for math or learning a list ofimportant part of the body.
spelling words.