[For Seniors] Let’s Have Fun While Training the Brain! Handmade Card Game Ideas
Would you like to play a homemade card game that can help train the brain?
It seems that many care facilities incorporate card games into their recreational activities.
So this time, we’d like to introduce ideas for card games for older adults using handmade items.
Games naturally engage the mind, so you can expect brain-training benefits.
What’s more, using your fingertips to flip and grasp cards also helps stimulate the brain.
Handmade cards can feel more personal, making the games even more memorable.
Homemade card games offer a kind of fun that’s different from store-bought products.
We hope you’ll find these ideas useful in your recreational activities.
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[For Seniors] Let’s Train the Brain While Having Fun! Handmade Card Game Ideas (21–30)
Text Color Card Game
This is a karuta-style card game where players focus on the reading of the characters and the colors on the cards to find the one that matches what is read aloud.
It tests your ability to decide whether the cue refers to the character or the color, and your judgment in locating it among the cards in front of you—so your thinking speed is key.
Clear phrasing by the reader is also important; be mindful to use concise expressions like “the character is red and the color is green.” The more cards with the same character in different colors are mixed in, the harder it becomes to judge the correct answer, so it’s recommended to gradually increase the number of cards as players get used to the game.
Shiritori Card Game
Haven’t many older adults played shiritori at least once? Here’s a familiar shiritori-style card game for seniors.
Prepare cards with each of the 50 Japanese syllables written on them, and deal five cards to each player.
Place the remaining cards in the center and draw one card to start.
Think of a word that begins with the syllable of the drawn card, so that the last letter of your chosen word matches one of the cards in your hand.
Adding a rule like “use three-letter words” makes it even more fun and can help stimulate the brain.
The first person to use up all their cards wins.
Let’s all enjoy thinking of words together while we play.
Recipe card
This is a card game where you pick two words from the lined-up cards and combine them to complete the name of a dish.
The key is how many dish names you can recall from memory based on the letters in front of you.
It’s also recommended to shuffle in a dummy card that forms a complete dish name on its own—it can mislead players, spark ideas, or serve as a hint for a similar dish.
It should be fun not only to come up with correct dish names, but also to invent plausible-sounding ones that don’t actually exist.
Picture matching cards
It’s a simple card game where the goal is to match the illustrations drawn on the backs of the cards.
To keep players from guessing what’s on the back, make sure the fronts are the same color and shape.
Any illustrations are fine as long as they form pairs, but having a theme—like “Fruits”—adds excitement as players anticipate what kinds of images might be included.
Increasing the number of cards raises the difficulty, so it’s best to adjust the deck size to suit the number of participants.
Easy! Prefecture Bingo Card with a Milk Carton
A simple bingo game played by arranging nine cards with the names of prefectures dealt from a deck.
Write the names of prefectures on cards made by cutting up milk cartons and create two identical sets.
Since the dealt cards are random, you repeat the process of checking once each time whether the called prefecture is on your hand, while hoping to complete a line.
Keeping your eyes on your cards, it might also be fun to recall images or memories of the prefectures as they’re called.
Color Card Matching Game
This is a game where you collect the specified colors from among cards painted on cardboard or construction paper and stack them in front of you.
The key point is that only the backs of the cards are colored, so encourage players to focus on the finger movements used to check colors and on remembering the placement of the cards.
The more color types and cards there are, the higher the difficulty, so once everyone gets used to it, gradually increasing the number should make it even more exciting.
It sounds fun not only with rules where individuals compete on speed, but also with cooperative rules where two people facing each other complete two sets together.
Number Memory Game
Some people may be looking for a brain-training game that’s simple and easy to learn.
For those people, I recommend the “Number Memory Game.” First, cut some paper to make cards.
Next, write numbers on the cards.
That’s all the preparation you need.
Then, show the cards to the challenger and turn them over.
Ask them to recall what numbers were written.
It’s also fine to turn the numbers into words or simple drawings.
I hope you enjoy the process of making the cards as part of the fun, too.
