Brain Games for Seniors on AARP

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Becoming a gamer in one’s senior years has definite advantages.  When Seniors flex their brain cells to play strategic games or learn new things, they are keeping the brain's gears "tuned up". Encourage older friends and family members to fire up their neurons by joining social websites, engaging in game nights and by playing online games. 

AARP is an organization for everyone once they hit that big 5-0.  This organization provides monthly magazines and newsletters to help Seniors stay up to date with issues that affect them, and  AARP's website is a great place for Seniors to find fun that will stimulate their brain cells!

The AARP site has a variety of games to choose from, including the standards like chess, checkers or solitaire. But they also have some innovative new games to play.  Here are a few examples of fun games that Senior's can enjoy on AARP's site:

The "Right Word" Game for Seniors
Players first provide their gender and age so that the game can provide the words to exercise brains in this profile of seniors.  This game asks the player to reach into their brains to find the right word they have stored away but may not have used in a while.  This exercise trains their brains to find the right words more easily.   If they play once, they’ll play ten times because their results are measured against others similar to them and their competitive nature will kick in!

Crossword Puzzles for Seniors
AARP’s site has a great setup to play crossword puzzles online. The easy version lets the player know when the right letters are entered (blue letters) and when they are wrong (red letters), but the expert version doesn’t. Players just click on the number on the crossword grid and the clues show up at the right. Very cool!

Seniors Will Love "Split Words"
If a Senior enjoys jumble word puzzles,  they’ll probably enjoy Split Words too.  Twenty or so words relating to a certain topic are broken into pieces, and players make words from the fragments.  Players are measured on number of words made, wrong guesses and response time. This game is very challenging but also fun!

A Senior Challenge: "Pyramid Solitaire"
This a a challenging card game that plays nothing like the classic solitaire.  Cards from one deck are  layered over each other, with a handful open. The goal is to click on two cards that add up to 13 to remove them, opening up more cards.  If there is not a move, players must resort to the pile.  The hardest part of the game is remembering that a Jack is eleven, a Queen is twelve and a King is 13.  This game is a  definite challenge for a brain of any age!

Today’s Seniors are not a sedentary group, but when they come home from their spin class they just might want to play a game or two from the AARP site.  That way, they’ll have exercised all their muscles!

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Resource for Senior Games:

AARP Website