For this weekend’s Try This, I offer a can’t-fail fun-maker: the yoyo.

I hadn’t played with one for quite some time, but picked one up at a store a while ago and just the feel of it in my hand made me smile immediately. I’m convinced flinging an object around on a string can’t help but “take years off your age.” Just watch out for bonking yourself (or others) in the head. Not saying that happened to me or anything…

If you actually need a rational reason to pick up a yoyo, it turns out that playing with a yoyo is great mental exercise because it uses both the left and right sides of your brain! Who knew?

If you don’t have one in the back of your closet or kitchen drawer, just going to pick one up could provide a spirit of adventure. Linger in the toy store! Try out all kinds of stuff! They’ve got all kinds of fancy models that light up and return to you automatically, but the old tried and true classic yoyo will do more than fine!

Once yoyo is safely in hand and you’ve had some time to play on your own, you can learn to do some tricks if you want. I found a site for beginner yoyo tricks, and one for more advanced.

Here’s the winner of the 2005 YoYo championships, for inspiration:

Give it a spin! Have a fun weekend!

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