Creativity + Brain Development

BGA is an online board game site that offers thousands of board games to play with other people and friends. Classic games like chess, or more complex strategy games like 7 wonders are available. Great for developing critical thinking and strategy development. BGA is a free service with most of the board games locked behind a $5/month premium sub, so be aware of that.

LEGOs or other building blocks improve creativity, brain development, critical thinking, design skills etc. They can also be collaborative efforts from multiple people, promoting teamwork and collective effort. A wide range of possible sets are available for whatever they are into.

Drawing similar to painting is an infinite way to creatively express an idea. Nothing beats the tactility of pencil and paper, but finding the right quality sketching pencils can be hard. Wacom tablets offer the versatility of pen and paper digitally, with unlimited paper and a wide range of tutorials. The cheapest Wacom is a Wacom One S for $110 which needs a pc to connect to, with compatible drawing apps. The cheapest all-in-one tablet Wacom One 12 with screen, pen, and cable is $255.

Painting opens up endless possibilities for creative expression and design ideas. While full canvas sets and paints can be expensive and time consuming, apps like Procreate are $13 or Linea Sketch are free. Both require an apple pencil compatible iPad and apple pencil for painting digitally. 

There are a lot of good typing games out there that make the process of learning fun instead of torturous. Epistory is $15 and Glyphica is $10, both are two standouts with engaging visuals to help ease the experience.

Minecraft is an amazing resource for spurring creativity, problem solving, design, coding, engineering etc. The building aspect is like LEGOs, the more in-depth engineering parts can teach electrical circuits and logic. The coding part allows infinite options for creating their own games, worlds, levels, or creations. 100s of hours can be spent optimizing and developing whole new experiences in this game! Minecraft is a $30 one time purchase on pc, or $8 on mobile with optional purchases of maps (levels) and skins.

Active sports are one of the only activities that compare to video games in terms of full body involvement. Getting the whole body and brain engaged in soccer, football, baseball or other is a great way to combat phone addiction. Its also the only activity other than games that promotes team work and collective problem solving.

Writing can take many forms. Writing reviews or the persons thought about an item down can dramatically improve their understand of their own thoughts and their articulation abilities. Discussing and writing down their opinions can help determine what defines them as a person

If you have the resources, construction of forts, treehouses, or other physical items improves their creativity, workmanship and technical skill a ton. On a smaller scale, minis figures like Warhammer, or other sets allow that construction or building on a personal level with personal sense of accomplishment. The Warhammer 40K: Paint and Tools Set (2023) is the best cheap option at $40 for getting a set of compatible paints, a clipper tool to remove figures from their housing, and a paintbrush. With this, you can buy any models you like and construct them, paint them, and game with them.

The basics of programming is all about learning how items are structured and how they fit together. while True; learn() is $10 and is a great game all about connecting different code chunks together to solve customer puzzles.