As quarantine draws on and on, you may find yourself looking for new ways to be entertained. Exercising your body keeps you up and active but what about exercising your mind? I’m not talking about working from home. I’m talking “mind games” that give you something to do while subconsciously exercising those brain muscles you can’t see. According to Dr. Susan Whitbourne, Ph.D., keeping up with mental activity is important. “Mentally engaging work benefits intellectual functioning,” says Whitbourne.
This list of games may interest you and even keep you hooked after quarantine subsides:
Sudoku
How to play:
The goal of this game is to completely fill in a 9×9 grid containing nine 3×3 sub-grids. This grid comes with some pre-filled numbers but you must fill in the rest so that each sub-grid contains the digits 1-9. The trick is, you must complete this task without repeating a number in the same row, column, or 3×3 sub-grid.
Boggle
How to play:
Shake a tray of letter-imprinted dice and let them fall into a 4×4 grid. Start a 3-minute timer, then allow each player to find as many words as possible. Points are given for each word you find that isn’t duplicated by another player.
Crossword Puzzle
How to play:
Use the hints provided by the creator of the puzzle to think of words or phrases and write the answers in the white spaces provided. The answers that go into the white spaces are written across and down, with separate clues for each direction. The answers will interlock with one another, so correctly answering one question will give you one or more letters that make up part of a different answer.
Spider Solitaire
How to play:
The goal is to remove all the cards by creating “runs” of cards. Each run should be organized in descending order from King (highest) to Ace (lowest). You can build runs by moving cards between columns—as long as they are stacked in the proper sequence.
Scrabble
How to play:
At the start of the game, each player picks 8 lettered tiles at random. Players must use the letters they picked to create words on the board. Once a letter is used, the player is allowed to pick another letter to replace it. Points are given based on the size and difficulty of the word as well as assigned point systems on the board.
Tetris
How to play:
As a series of shapes fall, you must manipulate them so that they fall into place. If manipulated correctly, they will fit together and the completed lines disappear from the board.
**Honorable Mention: Lumosity
While Lumosity is not a game itself, it is a website dedicated to brain games. On this website, you’ll find a variety of games to test different skills like verbal fluency, problem-solving, attention, speed, and memory. Directions for each game are explained on the website.
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