Games and logic puzzles. Why is it worth buying them for children?

There are a lot of games and activities for children. However, not all of them allow a child to develop their mind and thus achieve better results in school. That is why it is worth choosing those positions that, in the form of an attractive game, develop many useful skills – they teach discipline, determination, regularity and patience, as well as improve the intellect. They help in developing mathematical cleverness, learn to predict the consequences of their own decisions and strategic planning. At the same time, they bring a lot of joy to the child and give a lot of satisfaction to their parents.

Games and logic puzzles. Why is it worth buying them for children?

Unlike most games for children, in logic games, winning is not determined by the random element, but by the players’ ability to think. This category includes mainly: abstract games, no topics, puzzles, quizzes and labyrinths. They all require maximum concentration from the participants. It is an excellent exercise for the brain, not only for children, but also for adults.

Where to start?

If your child has not had any contact with logic games so far, you can start with the popular SmartGames series published by Granna. SmartGames are educational games that develop memory, logical thinking, perceptiveness, concentration and spatial imagination. We can find among them both items intended for children from 2 years of age, as well as many titles for adolescents and adults. SmartGames are single-player games in which the child does not need the company of a parent, but an adult opponent. However, nothing prevents you from having fun also in a larger group. The games are also distinguished by their compact nature. All online Sudoku puzzles are packed in small boxes and have a small number of elements. Thanks to this, we can easily pack them in a backpack and take them with us on a picnic or a trip. Each game contains several dozen different tasks (from 48 to over 100), and several difficulty levels (starter, junior, expert, master, wizard). As a result, the games from the SmartGames series do not get bored quickly.

I especially recommend for the youngest:

– Day and Night – is a multi-level puzzle game designed for children aged 3-6. In the box you will find beautifully made wooden blocks, a stand with pins and a book with tasks. There are 48 tasks of varying difficulty in the booklet, divided into the following categories: “day” and “night”. The fun is to reproduce the arrangement of the blocks in the picture. In the day when the sun is shining, you can see the shape and color. This makes it easier to arrange the blocks according to the pattern in the booklet. At night, however, you can hardly see anything except the contours. The task is therefore much more difficult. Day and Night is a title that has received many prestigious awards, incl. the main prize in the “Child-friendly World” competition, in the category of toys for children aged 3-7. The game is really solid and aesthetically pleasing.

– Bunny – is a game brilliant in its simplicity, consisting of only four elements, which will introduce a child to the world of three-dimensional space. The rules of the game are similar to those from the Day and Night puzzle – we have to reproduce the arrangement of blocks from the picture, with the difference that the Bunny helps children to see the relative position of objects in relation to each other and teaches them to name them – next to, above, under, behind, inside, in between, etc. We can offer the game even to a 1.5-year-old child.

– 3 Trucks – three fun trucks and 10 blocks to be loaded onto the trailers. Simple? Only seemingly, because each block is different, and each trailer has a different load capacity and shape of the box. Vehicles vary in length and height. So sometimes you have to combine well to cram all the elements. The game shapes the ability of spatial thinking and improves concentration. It impresses with the quality of workmanship and an original idea.

– Skyscrapers under construction – kids love to play with wooden blocks. Thanks to this game, they can combine great fun with developing their own intellect. The players’ task is to build skyscrapers from the elements indicated in the task. Easy as pie? Not necessarily, because the builder figure has been introduced into the game, which makes it much more difficult to build. The builder cannot be picked up to place the block. Also, it cannot go more than 1 floor up or down. Skyscrapers under construction shape spatial imagination, logical thinking, and teach concentration and focus. In terms of performance, the game deserves a special mention.

In addition to the SmartGames series, we also find a wide selection of great, logical board games. Particularly noteworthy are:

• Genius – a cult game by Rainer Knizia, one of the world’s leading board game designers. Its uniqueness is evidenced by the fact that it received a MENSA recommendation. It is a simple and at the same time extremely addictive game for children and adults. Genius is a combination of the iconic Scrabble game and the popular Domino. The game is about placing tiles with different symbols on them. Place the tiles in such a way that there are as many symbol pairs as possible in one line.
• Abalone – is a simple Sudoku puzzles game that both young and old players have fun with. The task of the players is to push 6 opponent’s balls off the board. Just like in chess, players have black and white balls at their disposal. You can actually move in all directions. We can move 1 or 2 and 3 balls touching at a time. However, we can push the opponent’s balls when we are outnumbered by the balls (2 balls push 1; 3 balls push 2).
• Hi! it’s my fish – it’s a great puzzle game for the whole family. Some say that it is a specific type of chess, in a new, much more interesting arrangement. Playing the role of penguins, players play a fierce duel for food in the form of hexagonal tiles with pictures of 1, 2 or 3 fish. At the beginning of the game, make the board out of all the tiles, and then place the penguin figures accordingly. The pieces in the game move like a chess rook – only in a straight line, but by any number of squares. At the same time, you cannot jump over other players’ pieces or holes that are created after the player captures the tile. After each move, the player takes the previous tile. The game requires you to analyze, plan and predict the consequences of your moves. A good strategy and skillful movement of the penguins will allow you to block and cut off the opponent, increasing our chances of winning.

Or maybe chess?

This “royal game” has many educational advantages. Chess teaches planning, prediction, drawing conclusions, develops concentration, improves memory and awakens creative abilities. Chess shapes useful features in life – they teach discipline, determination, regularity and patience.

In addition to the popular international chess, we can also offer the child Japanese shogi, i.e. chess from the Land of the Rising Sun. Their rules are very similar to the classic chess game. The main difference is that we can put the captured opponent’s pawns on the board as our own, and after reaching the opponent’s camp, almost all the pawns are “promoted”.

For children, we can offer a shogi version for the youngest – “Dōbutsu shogi”. The Egmont publishing house introduced a simplified version of shogi to the Polish market. A duel of robots, because this is the name of the Polish version of “Dōbutsu shōgi”, is a game for two people in which each manages an army of 4 robots. Each robot moves differently, but always only one square. The winner is the person who first gets the opponent’s red robot or gets his red robot to the other end of the board, i.e. to the opponent’s zone. A duel of robots can be an excellent introduction to the world of chess, and giving the game an interesting theme attracts children much more than regular chess.

For computer geeks

Of course, logic games can also be played online. There are many interesting educational websites for children on the Internet. They can play checkers with a friend or a computer, or the well-known game “Mahjong” from China. There are also games like “find the difference” and “memory”. Tetris and web sudoku are also very popular.

More Resources:

How did I develop my brain using mobile applications and what came of it?

8 reasons why you need to solve Sudoku

Take your mind to the next level with Sudoku!

7 activities that will make you even smarter