Brain Games are Essential for Homeschoolers

Your homeschool child’s brain is almost entirely developed by six. In fact, the brain of the average first grader weighs about three pounds and has 86 billion neurons pulsing information throughout all four lobes. The brain controls every other part of the human body, along with storing memories and recalling them at a later time, like for the big test. Keeping it stimulated and engaged during the summer is essential since this vital organ does such a big job for your kiddos. 

Just like the heart should be exercised by physical activity to keep it healthy, the brain of your homeschooler should have mental exercise. Although the science behind brain games is still a little up in the air in some instances, some studies suggest they help enhance memory. If this turns out to be the case, brain games are an excellent source of stimulation to help improve the memory and keep it charging towards the next school year.

What Are Brain Games?

Brain Games have a pretty broad definition. They encompass exciting technology such as phone apps and virtual logic puzzles. They also include more traditional long-standing games such as Minecraft or strategy games. Furthermore, a brain game could simply be a table puzzle, puzzle book, or even a board game. Some examples for first-grade homeschoolers include:

• Maze books
• Color by number
• Memory games, both virtual and card games
• Connect 4
• Checkers
• Crossword puzzles
• Minecraft
• Puzzles (25-100 pieces)
• Virtual reading escape rooms on Outschool

How Do Brain Games Benefit Kids During Summer?

Brain games have a wide variety of benefits to kids during summer. It isn’t just the memory you target when you supply your child with stimulating brain games. For example, You can also help your child improve skills such as:

• Hand-eye coordination
• Problem-solving
• Learning about the world
• Motor skills, both gross and fine
• Goal setting

In fact, games such as crossword puzzles have even been shown to help some students study for exams. While many of the mentioned brain games are sit-down games, sitting for too long can affect brain function. Fortunately, there are various brain games your child can play outside that work out both the brain and the body.  

Educational Board Games and Card Games

There are many educational board games and card games on the market for your first grader or early elementary age homeschooler. Summertime is the perfect time to implement a few of these. 

Sound Hounds: Card Game for Kindergarten and First Grade

One card game you may enjoy is the Sound Hounds learning game. Sound Hounds is a great learning game for kindergarten and first graders because it centers around phonics and, of course, dogs. The basic premise of this game is to make an entire dog. Each player is given three dog tail cards (or the back half of the dachshund.) Then they have to draw dog heads from the stack (or the front half of the dachshund) and try to make a word. The tail cards have ending sounds like -end, ail, ink, and so on. While the head cards have beginning letters or sometimes sounds like s, l, or sw. 

Main Learning Components:

Reading and Phonics

Connect 4: Strategy Game For First Graders

While not specifically a board game, Connect Four is a good strategy game for kids ages 6 and up. It is a two-player game, so it is perfect for smaller families or those with two or more kids. The game concept is straightforward, get four of your pieces lined up in a row either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Furthermore, you have to try to block the other player from getting four pieces lined up before you do.

Main learning component: strategy

Taco Vs. Burrito: A Silly Food Fighting Card Game With Educational Components

Taco Vs. Burrito is a hilarious card game for kids, and adults may even enjoy jumping into the thick of it for a few rounds. This game is short and takes about 10 minutes to play but is packed with educational content in addition to reading. The game’s basic concept is to build your “fighting hand” or get the most points by making the weirdest meal and food combinations. But some curveballs and obstacles might have you deducting points (i.e., bringing in subtraction). This funny food fight game is perfect for kids inspired by the silliness of life.

Main Learning Concepts:

• Addition
• Subtraction
• Strategy
• Reading

Cursive Handwriting Board Game

The cursive handwriting board game is a printable resource you can find on teachers pay teachers. You simply print out the game board and the pieces. Kids can enhance their fine motor skills by cutting out the player pieces. Then, they roll a dice or flip a coin to progress to the next space on the game board. Whichever space they land on, they right the cursive letter down. In the end, each letter is assigned a point value and the players add up all of their points. The one with the most points wins. This game focuses on cursive handwriting, fine motor skills, and addition.

Click here to order on Teachers Pay Teachers

Main Learning Concepts:

• Problem-solving
• Cursive handwriting
• Addition

Activity Books with Brain Games

There are various excellent activity books on Amazon you can pick up for really cheap. Be it a favorite animal, character, or topic that your child is interested in, Amazon probably has it.

Hamster Maze Book For Kids Ages 6-12

The Hamster Maze book is the perfect brain game and activity book for kids who love hamsters. This activity book features 72 mazes and in a classic hamster fashion, you help the hamster go through the maze to get to the snack at the end. This is a fun full-color activity book for kids and works on problem-solving as the main learning point.

Main Learning Concept:

Problem Solving

Mandala Coloring Book For Kids

The mandala coloring book for kids is perfect for kids who want to work on coloring in very small spaces. While at first glance you may not think that this is a brain game, there are a lot of strategies involved in coloring a mandala, especially with a color scheme in mind.

Main Learning Concept: Strategy

Unicorn Activity Book for Second Grade Homeschoolers

The unicorn activity book is full of brain games for girls. In fact, it includes over 10 of them in all. Some games you will find in this book include mazes, crosswords, word searches, mine finders, unicorn-inspired word scrambles, dot-to-dot, and more. This activity book has 100 fun pages to complete so it will last all summer long. Plus it has a fun glittery, unicorn design that kids will love.

Filled with over 10 different brain games!

Apps and Virtual Brain Games for First Graders

You can get apps on phones, iPads, Amazon Fire Devices, or computers that work as the perfect virtual brain games for kids. These games are similar to the activity book version, except they involve technology.

Happy Color

Happy Color is a color by number app that is perfect for kids. They can choose from a variety of coloring pages and then fill in the coloring page virtually as a color by number. The concept is pretty simple but it helps with consistent number recognition for younger kids. Numbers vary by challenge and some even go up to 140.

Happy Color is available on Amazon, Google Play, and Apple.

Word Lanes

While many kids will need help with word lanes, it is a fun app that gives you riddles to solve. It works on reading and spelling though it can quickly go beyond what a first grader can understand. This brain game may be more suited for older children, or for kids to do with an adult.

Word Lanes is available through google play.

DIY.org

DIY.org is a learning program similar to that of Outschool or even Kidpass. It has a variety of challenges to keep kids problem-solving and creative. Some of these challenges are asynchronous, or video-based, however, some of them are through live classes. The live classes give kids a chance to engage with other learners from all over the world. There is a lot of fun to be had with this program. You can pay for DIY.org by the month or by the year. It is a subscription similar to that of Netflix, but more educational.

Outdoor Brain Games for First Graders

The Fun Phix playset for kids is the perfect indoor or outdoor playground and brain game all in one. Kids can screw together the playground poles and joints themselves with easy handheld screws and big tools. Then they can play on the set. These sets offer hours of fun for kids, though they need some adult supervision. The buildings are very large for early elementary school kids. They can make boats, slides, mountains, and even playhouses. This is the perfect brain game if you want to work out the body and mind.

Main Learning Concepts:

• Problem-solving
• Excercise

Brain Games for Homeschool Kids

Brain games are the perfect tool to keep the learning going all summer long. Brain games may help to improve your child’s memory, but they also help with motor skills, goal setting, learning about the world, and more. You can find brain games in almost any interest area, from virtual games to paper activity books. There are even fun outdoor activities that serve as brain games.

Pin it!