Board Games for Your Brain
Board Games for Your Brain
We don't want to jinx anything but sooner than you think, rainy season will start. And while there are a lot of things you can do around Tokyo during rainy season, sometimes leaving the house is the last thing your family wants.
Luckily, there are still plenty of fun things to do at home — specifically, board games! And, as a bonus, there are a lot of board games that double as teaching tools so you can keep the kids entertained and educate at the same time. Find a few of our favorites below and stock up before the rain starts!
Chess
A classic! Chess is a relatively simple game (unless you want to play competitively. Then things get a bit more complex) with a few key moves to memorize. You can play with a classic board, or find something unique, and you can pause play if you want to go outside to enjoy a brief bit of sunshine. Chess helps to enhance memory skills, creativity, planning and focus.
Not your traditional board game! Kluster uses a rope and a bunch of magnetic pieces to test your strategy skills. The goal is to get rid of all of your magnets but — science lesson!— if your magnet attracts and attaches to another magnet, you have to pick both up. This game is easy to play anywhere, so if you need to sit out a rainstorm, it's perfect to play on the go.
The name says it all! Similar to Kluster, this is a non-traditional board game. Players take turns removing colored sticks from the precarious bundle.. until someone pulls the stick that causes the whole thing to fall! This is a great game for younger kids still getting a handle on their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, but the whole family will have a great time playing.
Make sure you have a dining table you won't need to touch for at least a few days! Risk is a long-time favorite game of strategy that usually takes quite a while to finish, so set it up somewhere it can sit undisturbed until a winner is declared. Form (and break) alliances, practice diplomacy and learn a little about world geography.
The Game of Life is sometimes more enjoyable than the real thing but it's still a great tool for teaching some of life's most important lessons. This version uses characters from Doraemon, manga favorite and thoughtful, earless, robot cat, throughout the game. Pay bills, go to school, get a job and, most importantly, have fun!
If you have any budding engineers in your home, this is the game for you! Players are tasked with recreating a tower from playing cards so that the marble makes it successfully through the three-dimensional maze. Sounds simple, but it will definitely have your family putting their brainpower to the test. There are several levels of difficulty so you can look forward to many hours of trial and error.
