Brain training games

[FREE866]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed, but does anyone here do brain training games? I do Lumosity and have for a couple years. It's like 10-15 minutes a day. Not sure if it really helps the brain and I'm also a little dubious that my results are in the "high percentile" for almost every category
Anyone have other suggestions? are these things even legit?


thanks!

 

[omni550]

Try learning a foreign language. I've heard that that gives your brain a good workout.

I'm studying German at the moment.

omni

 

[harllee]

My DH and I play games almost every day. The one that seems to work our brains the most is chess. We also like word games like Scrabble and Quiddler.

 

[mistermike40]

I've always been a chess nerd, and still solve puzzles and play online almost daily.

 

[Amethyst]

For about a year, I've been using star charts to learn to identify the brightest stars I can see with my naked eye, which also have very cool names - mainly Arabic, also some Chinese, Latin, Greek. So far, I have memorized and can point to about 75 of them.

It's more challenging than it sounds, as the constellations don't stay in the same place, and look different depending on the time of year. Also, due to light pollution from the mainland, I can't see any stars to the west - so have to wait for those to come around to where I can see them.

Was excited to recognize Canopus, the second-brightest star, which I've never seen (or noticed, anyway) before. At first I assumed it was either a planet, or a plane taking off from a distant airport.

 

[pjm-7]

I finally learned how to do Sudoku. As a financial person you would think that this would be easy for me. Not. I could not wrap my head around it. Last year after my move during the pandemic lockdown I needed something to do in an empty house. There was the daily Sudoku in the newspaper. It took some effort and a lot of cheating to figure out how to do it. Now I may do multiple puzzles in a day. I'm still lousy at them late at night after a glass of wine.

 

[Time2]

My reading says, exercise is more important than brain training, for your brain functioning.

 

[harllee]

My reading says, exercise is more important than brain training, for your brain functioning.

I think you need too do both--physical exercise and brain exercise.

 

[latexman]

Does Words with Friends count? I’ve been on WWF for a few years. It feels like I’m steadily improving my vocabulary and game strategy.

 

[FREE866]

Thx for the responses....


I also do online chess almost daily.....my game has really stagnated over the last couple of years so I might get a tutor or a lesson or something...


I also believe in physical exercise and I do weights and swim 3x a week as well as daily stretching/yoga.......maybe I'll look into soduko....if anyone thinks of others please post...thanks!

 

[RunningBum]

I do some of the puzzles at https://www.brainbashers.com

Crosswords are another, but I'm currently on a break because I get annoyed at too many of the clues.

I always have a book going too.

 

[DayDreaming]

I play online Scrabble and Sudoku.
I'm sure that it's made my brain better at playing Scrabble and Sudoku. It's my hope that forming new connections in my brain help with overall brain health, but who knows - I might just end up a demented old man who is really good at Scrabble and Sudoku.

 

[FREE866]

I do some of the puzzles at https://www.brainbashers.com

Crosswords are another, but I'm currently on a break because I get annoyed at too many of the clues.

I always have a book going too.

Totally forgot. I do the NYT mini crossword every day. It’s fairly easy. But I don’t always get it all. I will check out brainbashers. Thx

I was reading a book every few weeks for awhile but my current book I’ve had for a month. I’ve been very immersed in the baseball playoffs so haven’t been reading at night before bed like I like to do.

 

[harllee]

Coursera has many free interesting online classes. It really works my brain to learn something new.

 

[stepford]

I leaned about brainbashers on this forum. It and NYT crossword and KenKen puzzles were some of the daily rituals that helped keep me (relatively) sane during the confinement of 2020, but I've kept with them for fun even in this, much less restrictive, year

 

[street]

I started learning Spanish on line the first couple of winter on retirement. I just wasn't quite ready for going back to school again. I might give that a try again as the weather gets bad.

I'm doing Sudoku. I do easy mode thou and do one when I have the time.

 

[pacergal]

Duolingo, but not as often as before
Wordscapes, solitaire, just learned Mahjong, Left VS Right Brain Game

Have looked at Coursera, many interesting classes. That may be next for this winter.

 

[braumeister]

Duolingo, but not as often as before

I like Duolingo, and I even like the way it nags me to do a lesson every day.
I'm up over 600 consecutive days now and I still enjoy the process.

 

[Ian S]

I do the daily Sudocku in the paper but the difficulty got easier a few years ago and the Saturday puzzle which used to be extremely difficult is now pretty easy. I also do Jumble and *****-Focus which is where you have to find differences between two cartoon pictures. Three times a week, there is also a KenKen puzzle which I enjoy so much that I also have a version on my smartphone called Calcudoku. The latter has different sizes of the puzzle but I like the 6x6 and occasionally the 7x7. The app has up to 9x9 size which I should try!

I used to do the daily crosswords but was finding them too easy. Years ago I'd tried the weekly NYT crossword but found it impossible. However, over the last couple of years I tried it anew along with the weekly L.A. Times crossword which is a bit easier for me. At this point between the two of them, it takes me pretty much the whole week to finish them. I can sometimes get the L.A. Times crossword without cheating a couple of times but the NYT so far eludes me in that respect. I can get very close though. The NYT crossword often throws in additional tricks which can be very satisfying to solve.

I also enjoy solitaire on my phone. I don't solve them as quickly as others do so I try to solve them in the fewest moves. Occasionally, I can get my score in the top ten!

 

[Ian S]

For some reason, H-o-c-u-s is unacceptable.

 

[REWahoo]

For some reason, H-o-c-u-s is unacceptable.

Remember Groucho Marks' TV show "You Bet Your Life" where contestants could "Say the secret word and win an extra $100"? This is the ER-Org version where you post the secret word and risk conjuring up an evil spirit from almost two decades ago.

 

[Sojourner]

I like Duolingo, and I even like the way it nags me to do a lesson every day.
I'm up over 600 consecutive days now and I still enjoy the process.

Wow, 600 days in a row! Wish I could be that disciplined. Is that 600 days learning one language, or several?

And yes, Duolingo is a great, free tool for language learning. I can't imagine that using it on a daily basis wouldn't be good for one's brain health.

 

[Walt34]

I build and fly radio control model airplanes. This involves building complex structures out of wood and they must be precisely aligned, or if the airplane flies at all it won't fly well. It involves artistry in designing the colors and graphics to cover it with (which I'll admit I'm not very good at). It requires understanding radio wave transmission and propagation or else you occasionally crash an airplane and have no idea why, and now computer radios, receivers, and even the speed controllers are programmable and updatable so you have to know how to do that, and I'm also one of the club's flight instructors.

Many is the full-scale pilot who has come to the model site and had a rude awakening when discovering that very little of the flying skills from full size aviation translate over to R/C models. Yours truly included.

 

[FREE866]

I like Duolingo, and I even like the way it nags me to do a lesson every day.
I'm up over 600 consecutive days now and I still enjoy the process.

Thank you so much. Just did my first lesson--Spanish.



Thank you very much everyone. Really appreciate all these sites!

 

[Car-Guy]

Try learning a foreign language. I've heard that that gives your brain a good workout.

I'm studying German at the moment.

omni

I've tried to learn Spanish a few times (it would be useful around here) but I never stuck with it.... I probably know a few hundred words and phrases... The DW tells me I should learn English first....

But I do like working Sudoku puzzles... The easy puzzles are far to easy so I make them more challenging by doing all the 1's first, then 2s, etc... Try it, it makes easy puzzles a lot harder but it's doable... For me, the hard puzzles are hard enough without the need to complicate them.