Tom,

This was a fascinating article, particularly the idea of playing games to stimulate and challenge your brain. My family loves to play games that involve strategy, logic and collaboration. I used to hate these types of games because I could never keep the rules straight. I’d often sit out so as not to embarrass myself for not being able to catch on. Then I noticed my youngest daughter doing the same thing — sitting out when a game seemed too “challenging”. She’d get frustrated when she didn’t catch on right away so she just adopted my attitude of “not being a game person.” One summer I decided enough was enough and invited my daughter to play games with me on the regular. We played simple games like Uno and Phase 10 and slowly added more challenging games. Our attention spans started improving, and it was a lot of fun. Even my husband joined in. Now when we play at family gatherings, we might still need refreshers on the rules but that’s okay. The main thing is we play, and the whole family gets to have fun together.