There is no such thing as “age appropriate” when it comes to play because play is not a luxury, it is a necessity! But where can we play and what can we play with when going outside may bring home COVID-19 and all the public places like parks and playgrounds are closed?
Kids running around in the park or playing hide and seek in the local street is something we don’t see quite often in today’s mobile frenzy, automobile crazy, and COVID-19 haunted world. Because of our busy, condominium centric lifestyles and lack of playground, kids are not getting the benefits of outdoor sports that they need. For proper physical and mental development, kids need to engage in some sort of activity that will help them to unwind and have some fun. Instead, a majority of kids, especially in the urban and suburban areas, tend to spend most of their time at home just watching television, playing video games or perhaps, reading books. But, the good news is that there are some indoor indoor games which have proven to be beneficial for kids. Now, kids can be active, have fun, and most importantly play in a clean, safe, and colorful environment when COVID-19 is haunting the public places.
Indoor games cannot replace outdoor games. But, believe it or not, some scientific studies suggest that indoor games sharpen your memory, increase your alertness level, and help you to spend quality time with your family and friends. Therefore, as a parent you have to make sure that you kids are having a balanced dose of both indoor and outdoor games.
Table of Contents
Some of the benefits of indoor games are:
Reduces Stress and Creates Happiness
Study, or job, wherever you get it from, stress is the silent killer in a person’s life. It kills you slowly and prevents proper mental and physical development of kids. At home, an inactive life which is full of loneliness and lack of stimulation is the main reason for stress. Playing indoor games helps you to avoid loneliness and mental inactivity. A challenging indoor game helps you be happy all the time and tackle stress like a pro.
A Good Reason to Socialize
Spending quality time with our friends and family is super important for a happy life. The time that you spend with your friends or loved ones is the most precious moment of the day. An exciting and engaging indoor game can be a good reason for your family and friends to sit, laugh and gossip together. You feel relaxed, happy and energized after each indoor game session. Your kids become socially aware and gain confidence to interact with others.
Keeps Your Kids Active and Healthy
We all know that kids engaged in regular physical activity are healthier, both physically and mentally. Kids who are exposed to physically and mentally challenging activities, are more alert and emotionally stable than other kids who are not. Enhanced alertness and emotional stability help kids to perform well at school and other social situations. Some indoor play areas and board games serve as great options to keep children busy and active all day.
Encourages Creativity
While playing indoor games like chess and monopoly, kids are often faced with situations and challenges which force them to think and solve problems independently. Many times you will find them coming up with some creative ideas to make a certain indoor game even more exciting. The interaction they have with others helps develop their imagination. They learn how to solve problems by helping and interacting with each other.
Boosts Mental Stamina
Indoors games like carom and other board games make kids more expressive and curious. Many well designed indoor play areas and board games challenge your kids mental ability, hand eye coordination and problem solving skills. By playing indoor games, kids have the freedom to explore and develop their mental strength and agility in a safe and secure environment. The habit of focusing on one thing at a time, makes them better students.
Safety and Security
Most indoor games and play areas use equipment that is soft, well padded, and safe for children. These games are ideal for people of all ages. These games are specially designed to minimize physical injuries. When children are playing inside their house, they are under supervision of their parents. Not going outside the house and playing indoor games also protects your children for COVID-19 contamination and other dangers.
Improves Your Productivity
Believe it or not, playing indoor games boosts your productivity. Some research suggests that there is a direct connection between your productivity at the workplace and playing indoor games. From chess to carom, whatever you play, your productivity will surely improve for sure. The social interaction, the planning and the quality time that indoor games provide makes you perform efficiently at the workplace and any other social situations.
Children Learn To Handle Failure
Just like real life, in every game, there is always that uncertainty of losing. At times you win, at times you lose. In modern society, it has been observed that children and teenagers are not being able to handle rejection and loss with ease. Many are committing suicide and others are doing drugs. This is a problem that can be handled if children are exposed to indoor games where losing is a part of the game. They will learn to handle loss by playing indoor games.
Overall Wellbeing
Happiness is the best medicine and works better than apples. The strategy you make, the excitement of winning or losing and the quality time you spend with your loved ones around a board game relaxes your brain and muscles, reduces your stress level and releases happy hormones like endorphin into your bloodstream. The overall effect is ideal for lowering blood pressure level, improving memory and boosting your immune system, and thus reduces the chance of falling sick.
Some Popular Indoor Games That You Can Play With Your Friends And Family:
Card Games:
Bridge, Rummy; Pinochle etc. can stimulate the brain and help memory loss. These games are available in your smartphone as well.
Board Games:
Scrabble, Carom, Ludo, Dominoes, World Safari, Monopoly, Bingo etc. These games are ideal for seniors and children who are 8 years and above.
Mahjong:
A tile matching. Anybody can play.
In my suitcase (memory game):
One person lists an object and the next person has to memorize and repeat the previous names and then add his or her own. This game is good for everyone, especially senior citizens.
What’s That Saying:
You have to guess a well-known saying, or a movie name. Players are given clue words to figure them out. To win you have to be the first to guess the correct saying!
Reminiscing:
You are forced(happily) to share the most memorable events, favorite holiday, best advice received, best advice given, funniest moment, favorite memory etc. This game is a great way of spending quality time with your family and friends.
Guess The Song:
One person plays the prelude, shares a few words from the lyrics, or gives clues, and the rest guess which song it is. The one who comes up with the correct answer first wins the round.
Computer Games:
PUBG is perhaps the most popular game in town. There are thousands of exciting video games which you can buy and download online.
Crossword Puzzles and Sudoku:
Crossword puzzles and number games like Sudoku are games that you can play alone and boost your mental skills.
Pictionary:
The game is played in teams with players trying to identify specific words from their teammates. This game is also a great way to spend time indoors with your family and friends.
Dumb Charades:
This game is a great way to bring out your child non-verbal communication skills.
Here is a list of 15 Indoor Board Games that you can buy online:
MONOPOLY
One game can teach you so many things. Your kids learn vital concepts of running a business like Diversify your investments. Manage your assets. Spend wisely to avoid debt. Handling emotions in investment. Mitigate or make your own luck. Take well-calculated risks. Having money on hand usually wins.
Monopoly is a board game that you can play with your children, spouse, parents and friends. For your children it is fun and there are valuable lessons to be learned from it. Your children learn intimidating concepts like money management without realizing that they are learning while playing.
CHESS
Raises your kids IQ, increases kid’s problem-solving skills. Improves spatial skills, enhances the memory. Exercises both sides of the brain. Improves the concentration. Forces your child to be creative. Teaches planning and foresight. Prevents Alzheimer’s in elderly people.
If you remember yourself playing chess as a teenager, you will notice how much planning and prediction you need to do all the time just to beat your opponent. This is the game that you can play no matter where you are. If your child likes to solve complex puzzles, chess is the right game for him/her.
SCRABBLE
Lowers the risk of mental illness. Makes you happy, reduces blood pressure. Improves the immune system. Improves memory. Improves your English Vocabulary
Scrabble is a timeless game that is enjoyed by people of all ages. Playing Scrabble can be a fun activity to do with the elder and other loved ones. There will also be a great deal of fun during the game. Elders with memory or cognitive problems can especially benefit from regularly playing this indoor game.
PICTIONARY
Pictionary is a fun game for you and your children. You can play this exciting game together and it is suitable for any age. You can also make up your own version of the game and add your own words suitable for different age groups and a variety of subjects.
Hidden in such a simple yet fun game are a complex range of mental and physical skills that are crucial to learning and thinking. The player must see and represent the word as an image. By moving a pencil to draw, the player needs to communicate a thought; the other players then turn that drawing into a word or phrase.
UNO
Provides hours of fun and entertainment. Facilitates bonding. Develops fine motor skills. Teaches visual discrimination. Provides a fun way for kids to learn to count and do basic mathematics.
This fun game for everyone encourages appropriate, fun social interaction.
It demands strategic thinking and teaches kids how to identify numbers and colors. The activity needs flexibility and adaptability. It improves time management skills.Unknowingly, your kids learn the art of winning and losing gracefully.
LUDO
Feel Good and Have Fun. Enjoy Time With Family. Decreases Risk of having Mental Diseases. Decrease Blood Pressure. Child health & Brain development.
One of the effects of playing a board game like Ludo is laughter which prevents a lot of physical and mental diseases. When you play Ludo, your body releases endorphins which is known to elevate the feeling of happiness.This game doesn’t require a lot of skills but helps you to spend quality time with your children.
PICK-UP STICKS
Hand-Eye Coordination. Visual Scanning. Visually scan the pile and each player can pick up only one or two certain colors to make the game harder. Color recognition.
Precision grasp and release is a needed skill for fine motor tasks and manipulating small items.
It is super easy to play pick-up sticks. Just Dump the sticks out on a table and start playing. Each player should dump and attempt to pick up a stick without moving any other stick. Slide, pull, tug, or wiggle, but you can not move any other stick. If another stick moves, your turn is over. The player with the most sticks at the end of the game winds.
CHINESE CHECKERS
Analytical Thinking. Problem Solving. Increase in Memory. Life Lessons.You do win, and lose often too. Winning makes children confident, and losing often makes them understand that accepting defeats is the right choice and with practise they can win next time.
Chinese checkers gives your kid an opportunity to analyze the best possible ways to move the marbles to the immediately opposite home. Every time the opponent moves a marble, the child analyzes the position of marbles, and tries to move his marbles accordingly by finding the best path to occupy the opponents home.
BRAINVITA
Best part of this game is that it is played by one player at a time. One who finishes fastest wins. It can be played indoors or can be taken to a picnic or on travel. It’s not only an enjoyable game, but also helps in brain development and hand & eye coordination.
The objective of the game is to make moves in such a way that you get rid of all the marbles except the central one. But there is obviously a condition. The condition is that you jump the marble over the one near it and into the empty hole, and then remove the “jumped over” marble. Keep on doing this till only one is left.
FLIP THE CHIP
Forces you to form a strategy. This classic game of strategy takes a minute to learn, but a lifetime to master. It’s simple enough for children yet challenging for adults
Great fun for the entire family. A fast paced strategy game.
Dust off the classic board game, Flip-the-Chip that is lying on the top of your cupboard and put it to use. If you don’t have one, buy one. This indoor game can be one of the best ways to keep your children happy, healthy and active. It offers a lot more than just entertainment.
Playing board games is exciting and entertaining. These games give us the opportunity to take time off our smartphones and spend quality time with our family and friends. Board games are again gaining popularity these days because we are being forced to stay indoor because of COVID-19 pandemic. So, don’t wait, simply go online and order a board game for you and your family today.
