Marbles The Brain Store, located just off the Magnificent Mile in
downtown Chicago. (credit: Renée Carver)
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Chicago parents searching for educational toys, games, and other products to help children strengthen their brains and develop different mental skills can visit Marbles: The Brain Store at various locations around Chicagoland.
What is Marbles The Brain Store?
Though founded with the purpose of helping adults (especially aging grownups fearing the onset of Alzheimer's and dementia) to strengthen their memory and brain health, Marbles can also help much younger people improve their cognitive skills.
Some products stocked at this educational toy store (such as some of their brain software, nonfiction books, and vitamin supplements) are meant only for adults, but other products (such as educational toys, games, and puzzles) can be played with by children and families.
Dedicated to the idea that people can strengthen their brains by playing games, both the brick-and-mortar Marbles: The Brain Store locations and their online Web site are full of resources and information about strategies people can use to improve brain fitness.
Marbles The Brain Store picks toys and games to stock
based on the cognitive skills that each item helps the user
develop. (credit: Renée Carver)
Products at Marbles The Brain Store
Marbles: The Brain Store makes it easy for customers to locate the products best suited for improving different cognitive abilities. They organize their merchandise in clearly labeled sections by the kind of skill the items in each section develop:
- Memory (including many trivia games)
- Coordination (including products to develop fine-motor skills and balance, covering everything from toy construction sets to juggling scarves to Rubik's Cubes)
- Critical Thinking (including Sudoku books, brain and math logic puzzles, and chess sets)
- Visual Perception (including products selected to develop color sense, quick object recognition, and problem-solving skills)
- Word Skills (including the popular Bananagrams game, a whole Scrabble section, and many crossword books and resources)
Shopping at Marbles The Brain Store
Marbles takes pains to make it clear to shoppers how the different products they sell can and should be used. Some open games are out on tables at the front of the downtown Chicago location so that shoppers can try these toys out for themselves. Staff are on hand to answer questions and offer product demonstrations.
Each section of this educational toy store is not just labeled with its general category but scattered with informational signs and labels that quote researchers, theorists, and experts who support the idea of learning through play and that describe how and why to play certain products.
Where is Marbles: The Brain Store?
Chicagoans can visit Marbles store locations at:
- 55 E. Grand Ave. in downtown Chicago.
- Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie
- 4745 N. Lincoln Ave in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood.
You may also like:
- Review of Chicago Disney Store on Michigan Ave.
- Review of The Sanrio Store at the Shops at Northbridge on the Magnificent Mile.
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