The story of Abhimanyu, a great young warrior from the epic Mahabharata, tells us that our minds are impressionable and begin to form consciousness from the fetal stage. Medical science confirms so too!
The process of shaping, sharpening, and conditioning of minds that starts in the mother’s womb accelerates upon birth. A young mind learns from every sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. An engaged mind is an inspired mind. And what better way is there to engage students than mind-sharpness games?
Catch Them Early!
“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct.”
Carl Jung
From an early age, a child needs curated intervention to acutely sharpen their minds. Studies have shown that games can sharpen the minds of students. Why? Because it makes the learning process natural, organic, interesting, engaging, and fun.
Children are the future of mankind, cliché, but points me towards another absolute truth. Nobody can! It is also true that children have the attention span of sparrows. So, it is crucial to keep the mind of students engaged as then learning outcomes will be fruitful.
To achieve this parents/ guardians/ teachers need to introduce age-appropriate mind sharpness games at different stages of a child’s growth.
Activity, Stimulation and Retention Through Mind Sharpness Games
This blog does not promote any single type of game to sharpen the minds of students. But we discuss how games are an effortless method of leaving a long-lasting impression on the minds of students.
There is no dearth of games, whether on-screen or off-screen, indoors or outdoors. However, the usage of games needs to be well-targeted, well-intentioned, and properly administered with child safety measures in place. This serves the purpose of increased brain activity, stimulation, and retention.
Aamir Khan, an actor from Bollywood, also known as Mr. Perfectionist, has shown to the world in his hugely successful movie, Taare Zameen Par, that games when administered in a focused manner; can be combined with traditional educational methods that lead to increased creativity, innovation, and out-of-box thinking.
Types of Mind Sharpness Games
The simplest of games such as catch can improve the ability of the mind to perceive the speed, direction, distance, and angle of an object. It improves hand-eye coordination, on the other hand, indoor games such as ludo and snake & ladder teach us primary mathematics and in general, it conditions the mind to stay away from snakes because they are dangerous (not all of them are poisonous, and kids interested in serpentology can educate other kids about it)
It’s often seen that a child will forget alphabets or numerals when taught by a teacher in a School or tuition, however, the recall of learning is higher when the same is tutored through say a game or in a more engaging way where the mind and body are compelled to work together.
Building legos, or bringing the pieces of a puzzle together shows a particular piece will fit at a particular place and needs matching with the surrounding design. These sharpen minds because a child does not tend to forget the rules of a game thus positively impacting memory retention.
Every Game Has Its Winning and Learning Parts
A child will know that the carrom’s queen has to be won in the end. A knight in chess is the only piece that can jump other pieces because the knight represents a horse which is the only animal piece of the chess board that in real life is capable of glorious jumps.
It moves two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically, jumping over other pieces. In order to participate and win, the mind has to adapt, move and change strategy in tandem with his/her opponent thus stimulating brain functions.
Technological innovations have paved the way for onscreen; online & indoor gaming. Recently, online/screen gaming or electronic sports (E-sports) has been recognized by the Government of India as a sporting event. Research has shown that these mind-sharpness games have the ability to sharpen the mind of students just as well as the games involving physical activity.
Our opponents in games need not be just our next-door friends but they could be anyone across the globe. A chess prodigy in India can practice with a worthy opponent from Russia. Further, there may be physical difficulty where a child cannot go out (think of children who are differently-abled) or just does not want to go out, she can engage with others online.
Learning Through Games: An Enhancement to Traditional Methods of Learning
Mind sharpness games cannot replace the formal system of education, the difficult concepts of mathematics and science including social sciences need classroom teaching and nuances of behavioral methods need expert instructions. However, an institutionalized classroom education may not inspire students to think out of the box and be creative.
So, games can complement traditional learning methods. Playing cards, consciously or subconsciously, are a good lesson in probability or permutation. A theoretical physics concept can be explained practically by outdoor games such as football or cricket. A child can learn the force and angle it needs to use in order to hit the ball in a desired direction at a suitable pace.
Social concepts of human love and bonding should be taught through games. Team games make us a collective winner or give us the strength to own collective responsibility so that no one person faces adversity alone. These are values that make us more human and these values must be inculcated from a tender age.
After a long hard day, an adult needs to relax, so this is true for a child who needs to cool down. For a child, games are one of the best ways to de-stress and a stress-free mind is a healthy mind. In such a free environment, the odds of growth are highest.
Building More Than Sharpness of Minds Through Games
Fundamental Duties enshrined in the Constitution puts an onus on every citizen to develop the scientific temper, humanism, and the spirit of inquiry and reform and to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavor and achievement.
We may yet not realize it but games make children inquisitive, they sharpen our minds. We can very well say that games develop the overall personality, worldview, and outlook of students.
While games do sharpen the minds of students, it contributes much more. It imbibes team building, sportsmanship, and understanding the concept of brotherhood.
This goes on to show the children that together we can prosper and face difficulties and losses without much pain. It teaches us to win and at the same time losing does not mean the end of the world. It makes the child ready for his adult life.
Closing Lines: Bringing Fame Home Through Games
The next time your child plays a video game, any physical sports, or carrom board, she is not wasting her time but as a parent, if you are not able to curate studies and games together then you may very well be failing your duty. After all, it is through playing only, we can get our Olympic medalists, world cups, and champions.
Learn about Smile Foundation’s flagship initiative, Mission Education, and engage with us on how to thoughtfully integrate games and learning.