April 28th, 2011

Fun Word Games

All that children want to do is playing games. Parents might sometimes get nostalgic and let them have fun all day long, forgetting what else should be done. As psychologists claim, poor results will be obtained if we force kids to learn things they do not enjoy, but the risk is the same if we only let them do what they want.

The key would be to combine their appetite for fun activities with educational games that will train some major skills. Word games are one option, mainly if you choose those versions that can be played with other children, and not the computer ones. It is all about interacting and competing with humans.

Hangman
This is a word game played with pencil and paper, requiring at least two players. If your child has never experienced Hangman, it is such a pity. So do not waste time and learn your offspring how to have fun while getting some education with his friends. The rule is simple – one player picks up a word and the other or the others will have to guess it by suggesting letters. Every wrong attempt will be punished by adding a detail to a person that is on the verge of being hanged. Starting with the head and continuing up to toes, with multiple variations depending on the player’s imagination will probably be the funniest part. If the children that play it are small, you should just let them enjoy the gaming experience. As for the others, you could give them some hints about the letter frequency lists that are available in a language, so they could start with the most common ones.

Ghost
Ghost is a team word game, but one that still does not misses the competition. It is all about forming words as long as possible, by adding letters one by one. The goal would be to think of a letter that can develop the word fragment gathered until that moment, but a letter that will not end the new word. The player who happens to complete the word loses that round and a new one will have to start. You can keep the track of how many rounds have you played, how many players have lost and you could end it when there will be a single player left that has not loose any rounds at all.

You should all agree on how many letters the hint from the beginning of the round should contain. The name comes from an option of the game. At some point, if one player suspects that the previous one did not have a word in mind when adding the last letter, he can challenge him / her by shouting the word ghost. That person should be able to name a word containing all the letters from the paper. If he / she cannot do that, the challenged person loses the round. Nevertheless, if he / she has an idea, the challenger will lose.

Other options
You might be surprised on how many word games are available. If you can manage to make your kid stay away from a computer and go out with friends or even invite friends to come over, it will be a major accomplishment. Inform yourself and teach the little ones how to play acrophobia, boggle, scrabble, alternade, quiddler, crosswords, acrostics and so many other funny and educative word games. They need paper, pencil and imagination, not computers.