Scrabble, Word Games, Puzzles
and Children
Various word games, puzzles online or offline are not just a source of entertainment, but also they serve as educational means to develop the childrens' abilities such as language skills like spelling, comprehension and vocabulary.
Word games you can play with your children may be classified as follows:
Paper and pencil games:
Hangman
Jotto
Acrostic puzzles
Crossword puzzles
Cryptograms
Structured games which focus on the semantics of words and phrases:
Taboo
Charades
Categories
Fictionary
Letter arrangement games, where the aim is to build words out of given letters:
Anagrams
Literati
Boggle
Option
Pick Two
Scrabble
Scrabulous
Swedish puzzles
Upwords
Linguistic recreations based around words and letters:
Anagrams
Palindromes
Pangrams
Lipograms
Blog Name: Granny Smith
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Post: Word Games (Sunday Scribblings) / March 7, 2008
Word Games (Sunday Scribblings)
MULTIPLICATIONS
I’ll admit it. I’m a word junkie. My favorite games are Scrabble and Boggle. I work and even create crossword puzzles. Beyond that, I love to play with individual words, twist them, slap them into new forms, wring them out for new meanings.
Whereas others may put themselves to sleep by counting sheep, I do so by counting the number of words that I can make from the letters of a single word chosen at random. I do mean at random. Sometimes I choose it by focusing on the spine of a book in my bookcase. Sometimes it just pops into my head. Sometimes I am frustrated, as when the word that popped into my head was Mississippi. Try as I might, I could only come up with the following words: sip, pips, pip, miss, sips, piss, pimp, pimps, imps, imp, simp (slang) and simps. When, as I sometimes do when I run out of other possibilities, I tried to compose something from these, it turned out to be indecent.
Last night the word for courting slumber was multiplications. I should explain my self-imposed rules. I only use letters to the extent that they occur in the original word. Therefore, from the word above, I could make action but not inaction, since the latter has two ns and multiplication has only one.
It put me to sleep last night, but not before the richness of its harvest imprinted itself on my mind to the extent that I expanded my word search into today. Then I tried to use the new words to compose a piece. What is it? Poem? Lecture? Diatribe? You decide.
Call up an atoll,
a tall atomic mist,
as small mutations cast a pall on millions.
Mull on impact , on implications
as an oil scion claims soil to tap for oil,
as compliant oilist toils to plant
panic imputations,
put out an illicit call-up to all,
to a son to sail into action
to implant on locals an unlocal plan,
to still complaints --
son lost at an action station
in pain to taint a soul,
slain in oil silt,
lain so still!
So still!
Oust a scamp!
Opt to call a recall poll!
A plain stipulation:
Stamp out atomic multiplication,
its toll on trust!
Cast out oil pacts!
Split past oil until
sun, not oil, can act!
Stop oil action,
its oil spill, oil spoil.
And to think that all this was found in that one word multiplications!
Yes, as you might guess from this, I have other obsessions: peace on earth, protection of the environment, world health and others. I’m sorry I couldn’t show my support of women by including a daughter as well as a son in this little piece. But she was not to be found in multiplications. Could it be that she prefers mathematics? If so, perhaps it’s because it has team items as its meat.
Yes, words can say things about themselves! I don’t know what this might mean in the case of Mississippi. I’ll skip New Orleans and the possible miss with a pimp. But I do remember a night in a motel on the Mississippi River when my husband and I bought bottled water so that, given the color of the water that flowed from our faucet, we didn’t have to sip piss from upstream!
Wedding Reception Games
Wedding Reception Games - More Unique Ideas
by Mindy Makuta
There doesn't seem to be any end to the number of games that can be invented or borrowed, to play at a wedding reception. Here are a few more ideas for the bride, groom or their attendants looking to add a bit of extra fun to the upcoming event.
What's my line? - This is a variation of the TV game show where you try to guess what the contestant does for a living. We're not really pitting your family against your friends in this game but you do need to have 2 sets of players where one set does not know much about the other set. Pre-select one friend and one family member as volunteers. These persons should each have an unusual job or profession.
For the first round, have the volunteer friend come up front or on stage. Have the rest of your guests, who don't know him/her, ask up to 10 questions to determine what that person does. If possible, don't let the same guest ask more than one eliminating question. If this round ends without the right answer, then have the friend explain what they do.
For the next round, have the volunteer family member come up and the guests that don't know him/her get to participate. If this round ends without the right answer, then have the family member explain what they do.
If someone does guess the occupation, then an appropriate prize might be a wizard's hat or a Ouija board game.
Name that tune - the DJ or orchestra plays a few bars of a song that is fairly common but not on the official reception play list. Be sure to play some tunes for the younger guests and some for the older guests. The winner of each round dances with the bride or groom.
Guess the ingredients - You will need your caterer's permission and assistance for this game. Pick 1, 2, or 3 menu items that are being served at the reception. Have the caterer write down the ingredient list for them. Hand out paper and pencils to your guests and instruct them to write what they think is in each of the foods.
Guests with the closest guesses for each item win an appropriate prize like a set of gourmet spices, sauces, etc. Your DJ or someone in the wedding party can act as the judge/announcer.
Does the band know this song? - like "stump the band" on David Letterman - a good DJ can make this very funny. Your guests volunteer obscure song titles to the band or DJ. The band/DJ can either attempt to play the real song by that name or fake it. If the band doesn't get it right, the guest has to sing at least a few bars of the real song.
How Many Words? - Give a paper and pencil to each guest. Take the names of the bride and groom and write them in large letters on an easel or white board. See how many words the guests can create from the letters in their names in a set time limit.
For example MelissaJohn gives the words: mesa, josh, missal, noses.... Score based on the number of words, or use Boggle scoring where 4 letter words are 1 point, 5 letter words are 2 points, etc. If children are playing then you may allow 3 letter words at ½ point, etc.
If there is a wordsmith in the wedding party, that person can check the guests' word lists for non-words and tally the scores. Otherwise, guests can score themselves. In the case of a tie, offer "we're married" with a 2 minute time limit as the tie breaker. Present an appropriate prize to the winner like a Boggle or Scrabble game with a hand written note of accomplishment from the bride and groom.
Copyright 2008 by Mindy Makuta. Mindy and her husband own a small resort in Lyons, Colorado where they host outdoor weddings and family reunions. For more ideas on what to do at a wedding reception, see weddingsandromance.com/wedding-reception-activities on her web-site which covers topics of concern for before, during and after the wedding. They also publish http://www.168colorado.com, a site that helps plan Colorado vacations, including referrals for where to stay and what to do when you get there.
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Post: Board Game Review - The Settlers of Catan / February 10, 2008
Board Game Review - The Settlers of Catan
I’ve always been a fan of the classic board games: Risk, Monopoly, Scrabble and even some other not-so-rare ones you might have played but may not have, like Boggle and Stratego. I’ve also been known to partake in that game of , every once in a while. After I came to Harding University, I was introduced to such gems as Apples to Apples and was able to indulge my passion for party games that take more people than I normally had around to play with, like Catch Phrase and Scattegories.
But those were the games I stuck with, the old stand-bys. It was not until recently that I was exposed to some of the games off the beaten path. Last summer, my fellow Hobson's Buffet author Drew Spickes bought a couple games of the type you can only get from a specialty store or the Internet, and one in particular that we played all the time and I ended up buying for myself: The Settlers of Catan.
In The Settlers of Catan, each of the four players’ goal is to establish a presence on an island abundant in natural resources by building roads and settlements and controlling ports on the coast, while competing with other players for best position and trying to avoid a thief that will steal your resources. The premise sounds fairly basic, but there are a few things that make this one of the best games I’ve ever played, and that made it good enough to receive numerous awards from different publications and organizations.
The first thing you notice when you begin to play Settlers is the board. It is not a traditional board that you just set down and place pieces on: it is made out of 37 hexagonal cardboard pieces, which you set up in a random position every game. This makes the board and thus the game,different every time you play, which keeps things interesting, even when playing more than once in one sitting.
Another aspect is the social interaction. You could play the game all for yourself, mercilessly boxing people in, cutting them off from the resources they need and trying to rip them off, but it will come back to haunt you in the end. When you develop ill will in the game, you risk having the other players turn against you and send the thief in your direction or refuse to trade with you, even if it might be in their interest to work with you. Trust me; I know.
I’m a very competitive person, and I have to make sure that my competitive streak doesn’t take over too much when I play Settlers or I wind up being stuck, unable to move towards my goals because I can’t get the resources I need and looking at three unsympathetic faces.
While the objectives and game play remain pretty much the same every time you play The Settlers of Catan, the player interaction and board set up always make for an interesting, unique game.
One of the best things about it is that even if you reach a point in a game where you know you can’t win, you can still have fun by picking a way of playing that makes things either more difficult or easier for the other players, or just changes the game entirely. One player can completely change the outcome of any game, even if they can’t in a way that gives them a victory.
For even more variety, you can buy expansions to the game. While they cost almost as much as the original game itself, they provide a lot more depth to the game, like adding other islands and pirates or letting you build cities and create knights. There are several other smaller expansions that cost a lot less, but can now only be found on eBay or the like, of which I bought several.
My favorite smaller expansion adds in fish that you can harvest from the sea and then spend to get special benefits. Whatever way you want to play, expansions make a good way to change up an already expansive and fun game.
The Settlers of Catan is a wonderful addition to any board gamer’s collection, whether you only play games at family gatherings during Christmas and Thanksgiving or you play every weekend and even some nights in the dorm. Many people I've introduced it to have ended up buying it for themselves: my parents bought it since I take my game to school with me, and two friends each got it for their respective families. It finds the perfect balance of being easy to learn, yet complex enough to keep you interested the hundredth time you play, and with each game taking only about 45 minutes to an hour, it’s perfect for when you have a little time to kill and aren’t in the mood to try to take over the world or manipulate the real estate market.
All you have to face in The Settlers of Catan is the deceptively simple task of managing a little island. How hard could that be?
