A selection of the 7 most interesting and free educational games

The brain is the control center of the body. It provides vital functions, is responsible for thinking and the mind, consciousness and emotions. Due to the fact that the human brain is well developed, we are so strikingly different from other living beings. The possibilities of the mind seem limitless, but in fact, the brain's potential is used to a maximum of 10%, and more often than not.

The brain, like the rest of the human body, needs to regularly test its abilities. If you regularly perform brain exercises, you can become smarter, improve memory and attention, develop imagination and thinking.

Rocksmith

• Website: https://rocksmith.ru/

Guitar teacher. Unfortunately, for it to work, you will need to spend almost six thousand rubles on an adapter cable to connect the guitar to the computer (it allows you to connect to Xbox and PS3/4 consoles). The developer claims that their software makes it possible to learn basic skills in just two months. Once you install Rocksmith , choose the level that suits you best so you don't have to do what you learned on your own. The image of a real bar, which is displayed on the screen, allows you to understand exactly what tasks a particular level poses for you. The graphic component is at a high level.

Inside the program there is a special mode - GuitarCade, where you play a variety of small games. Control is carried out through the guitar. Such classes help you to handle the instrument more confidently, as they force you to work without looking at the fingerboard and strings. For the most active users, Rocksmith also hosts various events (promotions and competitions), where you can receive memorable gifts.

Board games

Chess

And the first of these games is chess. Truly a brilliant game in which you will need logic, the ability to build a strategy, and predict your opponent’s next moves. This game is a wonderful way to develop intellectual abilities regardless of age. The game takes place on a board lined with 64 squares of black and white colors. Each opponent has 16 pieces at his disposal: 8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, a queen and a king.

The goal of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, that is. attack the king so that he has nowhere to run. A very useful activity that will help you improve your memory, logic, ability to build a strategy, the ability to predict enemy moves, and calculate several moves ahead. The game ends if the king cannot move and is attacked by an enemy piece. We recommend Chess for you and your child.

Domino

By playing dominoes, a child will be able to learn counting series and addition, and you can also teach him to determine where there is more and where there is less. Dominoes will help your child understand which number is greater and which is less relative to a given one. By playing this game regularly, you will help consolidate your child’s knowledge in these disciplines.

Mahjong

An excellent educational game for children is the card game Mahjong. The game is of Chinese origin and widely played in Asia. A relatively young game, it appeared about 1.5 centuries ago. The game itself is entertainment, but besides this, it improves logical thinking, observation, teaches you to analyze the situation, gives you the opportunity to build your own game strategies, and so on... The main task of the players is to score the most points by collecting the most valuable combination from a given number of dice .

Yousician

• Website: yousician.com

Another version of the program that teaches you how to play musical instruments. True, in addition to guitar and bass, you can also play the ukulele or piano. The free-to-play model limits you only in that scoring performance is only available for one hour per day. But no one forbids you to train inside the game, even for days on end. You can always choose the song you like and study its performance in training mode. Yousician not only teaches you how to play notes and chords correctly, but also forces you to follow the rhythm. If you don't hit the beat, then completing the levels will become an impossible task.

Unfortunately, one of the most important advantages of the game is also a disadvantage - Yousician receives sound from you through a regular microphone. You can use a regular smartphone for learning. As a result, noticeable errors appear. If you have reached at least an average level, you will notice that Yousician considers your play correct even in those moments when you make mistakes. A “dirty” game here will pass for a clean one, and this is not very good from the point of view of serious learning.

For independent work

This game will help “pump up” your creative thinking, plus there is a high probability that you will find a solution to some problem or difficulty in the process. The conditions are simple: when you are relaxed, think about some of your dreams, then look around and fix your gaze on one object.

Now try to formulate a question about how with the help of this object you will realize what you want. For example, you want a car, you saw a phone and asked yourself: “What can I do with the phone now to buy a car?”

Let’s say you remember that a friend is selling his “iron horse”, call him and ask about the cost. After which a new goal is formed - to earn a certain amount of money. You look around for something and come across a window. Now you formulate the question a little differently: “What can I do with the window now to earn such and such an amount of money?” And you realize that you can earn extra money by installing windows. And so on.

Keyboard solo

• Website: https://solo.nabiraem.ru/

What skill is taken for granted by all modern people today? Of course, fast typing on the keyboard. Being able to type quickly, and touch-type, is extremely useful. Fast typing makes it easy and fun to deal with large amounts of routine manual work. Writing articles, reports and any other working documentation will no longer be a problem for you. By confidently typing two hundred or more characters per minute, you will save a lot of time, which you can spend on much more enjoyable activities.

By the way, Solo on the keyboard is completely free and allows you to learn to type with various layouts. You will be able to confidently work not only with Russian texts, but also with English ones. The learning process will not cause difficulties, and you will be able to feel the effect just a few days after starting classes.

City quest “The Art of the Rejected” at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin in the Questionery application

Pedestrian quest in the Gallery of European and American Arts of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin’s works are not only historical mysteries, but also aesthetic pleasure. In two hours, walls with paintings by C. Monet, O. Renoir, A. Sisley, C. Pissarro and other masters of the 19th–20th centuries will reveal their secrets to the players. Among other things, by completing the quest, you can find out who became the “godfather” of impressionism, because of whom Van Gogh cut off his ear, why Cezanne wrote on a stepladder, and they wanted to sue Toulouse-Lautrec.

What it gives: training memory, attentiveness and logical thinking

World of Guns

• Website: https://noble-empire.com/news.php

A weapons simulator designed to satisfy the needs of a huge number of firearms fans around the world. The developer really tried, because you are offered not only to admire the pictures, but also to literally twirl the firearm in your hands, disassemble it and fully study the design. World of Guns has a fairly confusing interface, so don't neglect the tutorial that comes with it when you first start it. A huge number of weapon models requires an equally impressive number of different parts and fastenings. As a result, there are so many options for interacting with the “guns” that even an advanced user can get confused.

As a gameplay, you will be asked to disassemble and assemble various types of weapons for a while. As your skills improve, you will be able to receive a variety of rewards and achievements, simultaneously expanding your available arsenal. For a small fee, you can immediately unlock everything that the developers have in store. Another notable feature is the ability to simulate the shooting process in a semi-disassembled state. Available for use: X-ray, slowdown, model sections and a complete list of parts names. By the way, you can shoot with your favorite guns at the shooting range, although you will have to try and gain points to open it.

In general, the game offers a wide range of armed entertainment. It would take a very long time to list them all, so if you are a born militarist, then come in and experience all the delights for yourself.

BrainApps

With the help of the service, more than 350,000 people are already developing their thinking, which is associated with the effectiveness of the developed tests.

Functions and tests

The program offers users to use various simulators:

• visual search;
• anagrams;
• color matrices;
• operations;
• diamonds;
• keen eye and so on.

Tests also available:

• Eysenck IQ test;
• Raven's test;
• test - which hemisphere is dominant;
• temperament test according to Eysenck and others.

Available tasks:

• pattern of letters;
• stone of passion;
• magnets;
• problem about two numbers and others.

In addition, the service offers courses on brain development, attentiveness and memory.

Who is it suitable for?

The development is intended not only for adults and the elderly, but also for children.

3D instructor

• Website: citycardriving.ru/

Another hot topic for most young people is obtaining a license. 3D instructor application is designed to cope with this task . The three-dimensional driving tutorial allows you to visualize all the situations that are covered in the exam papers. By choosing test mode, you can drive around the racetrack, trying not to score penalty points. Of course, this gets boring over time, so the developers added the ability to drive around the city. Practice your driving skills in ordinary and extraordinary situations that arise on the road. Of course, a 3D instructor will not give you real driving experience, but will help you prepare for your first training trips as much as possible.

Escape room "Tesla Tower"

The quest room with tasks from entertaining physics is dedicated to the inventor of the electric motor and alternating current, Nikola Tesla, who believed in the existence of the ether. It is with his faith in the ether and the telecommunications tower he created that the plot of “Tesla Tower” is connected. In it, players are transported back to 1941 and find themselves in a tower that they must climb up to solve scientific riddles to reach the final task.

What it gives: development of concentration, logical thinking, memory training, overcoming fears

Human Resource Machine

• Website: https://tomorrowcorporation.com/humanresourcemachine

One of the many puzzles that teach the user how to program. True, the language used here is non-existent, but based on assembly language. You will be taught basic concepts, loops, conditions, and debugging principles.

You will play as an ordinary office clerk who has to climb the career ladder for a long time and persistently. With each new year you will climb higher and higher. Each level offers its own task that will need to be completed, and the solution mechanism must be debugged to perfection. You will need to send documents, pass them through a photocopier, and build columns of commands inside the visual editor. As you progress, you will have to start operating with various functions, working with Fibonacci numbers, optimizing ready-made programs, reducing the number of lines of code, and much more.

In general, Human Resource Machine will be useful for people just starting their acquaintance with programming. A program was developed for children so that they could begin their first steps in the endless world of code in a playful way.

Solitaire games

When we need to switch, out of habit, we open our favorite solitaire game and almost automatically lay out the cards. Without realizing it, we are engaged in relaxation, after a couple of layouts, the view of the problems becomes clearer, and original solutions to complex issues are found by themselves.

• We isolate ourselves from strangers for a while and put our emotions in order.
• When selecting expedient moves, we are inevitably distracted from real problems.
• Monotonous mouse movements are as calming as fingering a rosary.

Solitaire games are priceless - they entertain, relax and sharpen your thinking abilities at the same time.

Spider is a classic solitaire game loved by many for its moderate difficulty. The cards are not always laid out, a few mistakes - and everything has to start from the beginning.

Rules of the game

Ten columns of cards are play cards, another five piles are reserve ones, they are used when the moves end.

1. On the card of higher value you need to put the lower one.
2. You can move cards one at a time or in incomplete groups. For example, attach a four or three to a five.
3. You need to collect sets of cards from king to two, the last card is an ace. The finished set is removed from the table.
4. If you play several suits, you can add cards of any suits in descending order. But a group of the same suit is considered assembled.
5. When you run out of turns, click on the reserve deck to reveal 10 new cards.

You can play solitaire the old fashioned way - with a deck on the table, but this has already become very rare. It is much more convenient to use the online game "Spider", just click here.

Screeps

• Website: screeps.com

A game that allows you to control your own virtual world through JavaScript programming. In fact, this is a training sandbox where the user is asked to lead a colony by programming its AI population.

A fairly simply designed traditional strategy differs from most others, perhaps, in its management. Your colony is located in a common world, along with other, competing settlements. Operating around the clock, the game assumes the possibility of any incidents in your absence, so you need to accurately prescribe protective algorithms in case of unforeseen situations.

Unfortunately, here you will not be taught programming in the literal sense. After all, the user must be familiar with JavaScript if he wants to start his journey in Screeps . There is no training here to help people unfamiliar with programming learn the basics. So before you start managing your own world, you will have to gain practical and theoretical knowledge.

Mnemonica

The focus of the site is to explain the ideas behind mnemonics. The exercises are designed for brain development and memory strengthening.

Functions and tests

A huge range of exercises for memory development is presented:

• chain of thoughts – improves associative thinking;
• pairs of words – intended for beginners (you need to form a connection between pairs of words);
• word list – learn the arrangement of words through connections.

The exercises are offered at a more complex level each time.

Who is it suitable for?

The service is aimed at improving intellectual abilities in adults. You need to be patient and persevering.

What develops

Trains imaginative thinking, after execution it is much easier to view texts, numbers, images in your head. Thanks to exercise, memory is significantly enhanced.

Advantages

All site services are provided free of charge.

Flaws

No significant disadvantages were identified.

Official website: https://mnemonica.ru/

Shenzhen I/O

• Website: https://www.zachtronics.com/shenzhen-io/

One of the most in-demand specialties today is a microcontroller programmer. Shenzhen I/O invites you to try yourself as a working engineer. Assemble devices from radio components and program them to perform certain sequences of actions.

As a task, you receive design documentation, according to which you need to assemble a finished product that performs the specified functions. The developers carefully gave you a huge Talmud, called a manual. If you want to successfully complete the game, you will have to look into it throughout its entire duration. Of course, Shenzhen I/O is not a complete training in microcontroller programming. You will only be able to familiarize yourself with the basic principles and functions. In order to become a real specialist, you will have to spend much more time on training and practice. But you will be able to fully understand whether this type of activity is suitable for you.

Mahjong

An ancient Chinese puzzle has spread widely thanks to an online version. Mahjong is similar to dominoes, only the tiles do not need to be placed on the table, but rather removed from the stack. To disassemble layers of chips, you will need:

• Concentration of attention.
• Ability to calculate next moves.
• Memory.

Rules of the game

You need to collect paired chips in such a way as to disassemble a multi-layered figure. The images on the chips are intricate and require attention. Mahjong is not rushed, relax and click here.

One Hand Clapping

• Website: https://baddreams.itch.io/onehandclapping

A game that is controlled entirely by your voice. The developers have done a good job on One Hand Clapping so that you can learn to play different notes and sequences in an entertaining way, holding them for a significant amount of time. This is exactly how one gets acquainted with the basics of vocals during traditional training. You study the notes, listen to them and repeat them yourself. In general, the process of completing One Hand Clapping is no different from regular training for beginners. For the most complete immersion in the musical world, you should set the difficulty level to maximum and try to hit all the notes from beginning to end.

Peak (free)

For iOS

For Android

This application can be installed absolutely free. Peak presents a collection of mini-games that allow you to train your memory, speech, mental agility and... Oh, yes, attention!

In total, the application gives access to more than 30 games, which is enough to prevent classes from turning into a daily routine. The free version has all the functionality you need, but you can pay a monthly subscription fee of £3.99 to play all the games as often as you like, personalize your workouts and get more stats.

Chisloboi

This is a game for developing mental arithmetic. This is a very narrow specialization.

Functions and tests

The following game modes are offered:

• study – without time tracking;
• Multiplication table – apply division and multiplication;
• marathon – 20 timed questions;
• children's - an easier option for kids;
• adjustments - each question is given 3 seconds to answer, otherwise the next one is asked;
• error-free - within 3 minutes you only need to give the correct answer or the game will be stopped.

Who is it suitable for?

Suitable for people of any age category.

What develops

Development of mental calculations.

Advantages

You can use any mode for free.

Flaws

Users did not identify any shortcomings after using the resource.

Official website: https://chisloboi.ru/

S-Mind

The resource is a single collection of information about a person’s personal capabilities and factors influencing the formation of intellectual abilities.

Functions and tests

The brain development service offers a large list of articles that contain information about the most important mental processes. You can also learn indispensable tips for speeding up brain function.

Offered:

• maze games;
• general mathematical riddles on logic;
• puzzles;
• exercises using household items;
• IQ test.

Who is it suitable for?

Absolutely anyone can test the service.

What develops

The site provides tips on how to speed up brain function, strengthen memory, and develop thinking.

Advantages

There is no charge for using the site.

Flaws

The resource has a very inconvenient interface, and users consider it completely unfinished.

Brainscale

The site is based on the work of a professor at the University of Michigan.

Functions and tests

The development of thinking occurs in a game version. The program can be downloaded or used in real time. Instructions with explanations are included. The interface is simple and easy to read.

The player is given squares in the cells of the matrix, while the letters are spoken. It is necessary to identify whether the presented image has already been presented at a certain position and how many times.