Brain Teasers
 

We were advised that hubby would have some "chemo-brain" effects, and we were given some good ideas for minimizing the problems. One of the recommendations was the use of brain teasers to encourage brain stimulation.

Our local paper is now publishing a daily Sadoku puzzle, and Mr. Elph has jumped on those. He also does the cross-word puzzle and plays forecell. He enjoys reading, but he has been having difficulty in concentrating on the written word. I plan on bringing out the backgammon, cribbage, and chess boards over time.

I would welcome any other suggestions y'all might recommend that provide a spectrum of challenges to the thought processes. I don't wish to give the impression that he is currently a drooling neandrethal. He is quite intelligent under ordinary circumstances, which makes this "fuzzy" brain thing all the more noticeable.

Many thanks in advance,
Pen

I watched a lot of Jeopardy and did crosswords.

I'd recommend this sudoku site.

He could spend some time trying to fathom the female mind...

That'll keep him busy.

Sorry Pen. I've had a bad week... :D

He gave that challenge up shortly after he met me. :D


Edit: Thanks, Spectre. Jeopardy might help get the verbal responses working better again. Would it be too forward of me to ask you for a pm or post about how you have managed to get through the effects of chemo?

The cryptoquips in the paper are excellent for deductive reasoning exercises. Certain 'tricks' such as two letter words mostly starting with I or A, double letters in the center of a word are usually 'oo' or 'ee' help figure them out somewhat. Maybe if he needs focus practice, those find-a-words? I went through those like mad when I was stuck in bed for 3 months. :)

Mindtrap has quite a number of good brain teasers.

I have a set of them myself. But after a while, you'll get the hang of the game and the way the answers will work. So it's only good for a short while.

Siege, is "Mindtrap" a website or set of books. I'm hoping a short time is all that is needed. :)

Look in the magazine aisle at your local grocery store. There are plenty of puzzle magazines, from simple to difficult. Crosswords, word searches, logic, etc.

My set, is a game. It's kind of like snakes and ladders... Just that there's no snakes and no ladders. And to advance, you have to answer a brain teaser correctly.

I believe there are other forms. They make murder mystery games and other things. I believe they even have some form of brain teasing puzzle (like, a 500 or so piece puzzle that has some form of brain teaser or something).

I can type up a few sample questions if you're interested.

My Father in Law is still on chemo- he's been on it for three years. Apparently the fuzziness is just a side effect- sometimes it goes away, sometimes not. It depends on the chemo.

What you're doing right now- puzzles, brain games, that sort of thing, is an excellent way to help the anti-fuzziness. Keep in mind it might take a while, even a really long while to fully go away or be under control. :thumbsup:

I want to thank everybody for contributing their good ideas. I get "fuzzies" all over when I see hubby regain some of his former confidence. :icare:

I might be stating the obvious here, but I'll chime in, anyway.

There are a series of magazine by publishers Dell that are pencil puzzles. They have large volumes out that have logic problems, crossword puzzles, sudoku puzzles, annagrams, and all kinds of things like that. I spent many hours with them. They're pretty fun, also.

Personally, for keeping my mind sharp, I prefer logic problems.

Hope this helps.

Everything helps, JJ. :)