Santa brought Seven (yes! Six is now Seven!) the Scrabble-inspired game Bananagrams for Christmas. Players use tile pieces with letter and you create words independent of the other player(s). Imagine Scrabble without a playing board and no points (along with some other simple rules). It's slightly addictive and when he is eager to procrastinate the bedtime hour, he sweetly asks, "Mom, will you play Bananagrams with me?"
Why, yes, kid. I will play a round -- or seven -- of Bananagrams with you, thank you very much.
I highly recommend this game for parents with kids who are learning how to spell. I find myself amused as Seven creates some random words and when he knowingly comes up with fake words. My kid loves seeing the words I come up with (see photo). It's low pressure and silly; you yell out words like, "split," "dump" and "peel" as you play the game. But yes, educational.
Also? We brought the game with us to Kauai -- it's super small and travels well (and we only managed to lose one tile).
