5 Creative Ways to Keep You and Your Family’s Minds Active at Home

Although COVID-19 lockdown restrictions are now slowly and carefully easing, we’re not out of the woods yet. However, as appealing as binging Netflix and having beers at 11am sounds, it’s important to get your brain back in shape before re-entering society. So, here’s 5 ways to kick your mind into gear before the pubs open up again.

1. Name, Place, Animal, Thing

This is a fun mind game for both children and adults alike, so grab your family and have some fun! Its premise is simple – a challenge to write a name, place, animal and thing from each letter of the alphabet. Here’s how it works:

- You need at least 2 or more people to play.

- Write the letters of the alphabet on individual bits of paper, fold it once, and place them in a bowl.

- Each player is to have a sheet of paper containing 5 columns, under the headings ‘Name, Place, Animal, Thing, and Total’ (total is where you tally your points).

- Randomly select a letter from the bowl. Each word you write must begin with this letter.

- Continue this process until no more letters are left in the bowl.

- Each correct word is worth 10 points, and the player who finishes with the most points wins!

To find out more, check out https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-play-name-place-animal-thing/

2. Make Slime

Embrace your inner child and keep the kids entertained for days with one simple recipe! Using nothing but water, glue, borax and some food colouring, you can create the world’s most malleable toy. Bask in the glory of your own basic chemistry skills, and prove to your kids just how cool science can be! For recipes and more, head to https://www.homesciencetools.com/article/how-to-make-slime/ and see what you can do.

3. Rap Battle

Now to prove just how UN-cool you can be, challenge your family to battle it out on the mic. Although this is best suited to slightly older kids, it’s still a great way to keep your brain active and think on your feet. The best part about this one is, everything’s up to you! You guys get to decide the rules (if there even are any) and you choose how you want to go about it, which is much more fun in my opinion.

Plus, your kids will be learning about poetry in the process, because all rap follows a structure, rhyme scheme and syllable count.

4. 2048

This one doesn’t need much explanation. It’s a classic puzzle game that’ll either sharpen your mind and encourage you to problem solve, or it’ll remind you of why you should’ve paid more attention in your year 4 maths class. Either way, you can easily lose hours playing this game, but it’ll keep your brain active the whole way through.

5. Write/Draw Something

Creativity is one of the most powerful assets a person has, but so often it is lost as the harsh reality of life takes over. Bring it back. Write a story of faraway lands, of animal assassins or dragons on the moon. Write a skit, or a joke, even just a character description. Most importantly, get your kids to do the same. Harness their creativity while it’s still burgeoning, and gain valuable insight into how their mind works. If they’re unable to write, get them to draw whatever pops into their head – you’ll be surprised at the results. Children are some of the wisest people you’ll meet – learn from them. To learn more about decoding your child’s creations, check out https://novakdjokovicfoundation.org/learn-to-decode-childrens-drawings/

So, what are you waiting for? Bust out the big brain and go have some fun!

Written by Clayton Stitt.