Anagrams and Other Word Games

If you know someone who loves words, you are sure to find a great gift for him or her on this page. Word games, including Scrabble, Anagrams, and many other games using words, are popular with both young and old. Word games help children learn literacy. Word games also help seniors keep their minds supple and young. Those who are between these two book ends can increase their vocabularies and keep mentally fit by playing with word games and puzzles.

Maybe you'll find the perfect word game gift for someone in your family on this page. Word games will continue to delight all of us word affictionados for years to come!

I have to admit what everyone in my family already knows: I love words and word games. When my kids were small, I taught them how to play Scrabble and Boggle. They learned cheerfully. As they grew, however, I gradually suspected that they were playing the game just to please me. Playing any board games together is a great way to promote family togetherness. But sometimes it becomes important to spark a little life into an old theme. Lots of new games have been created to slip in beside some of the old faithfuls to enrich your family's literacy experience.

If you are like me and want your children to enrich their lives with words and puzzles, you may be interested to know that great as the game of Scrabble is, you don't have to stop there. More word games are introduced each year for the word lovers among us. Many of these word games will be great aids for children learning how to read. But these word games are not just for children. Adults and teens will enjoy playing these word games, too.

Banana-grams was given awards in 2009 as best game of the year. Since then the creators of Banana-grams, along with master puzzle maker Joe Edley, have come up with several books which take the Banana-gram theme and expand on it.

The beauty of Banana-grams is its portability. The tiles -- similar to those you would find in a Scrabble game -- are zipped into their own banana-shaped case that you can tuck into a back pack or a purse and take along with you on your travels. If you would prefer a book instead of the tiles, now you can choose from several Banana-grams books, each with original word puzzles to challenge your word skills. The puzzles are grouped by their level of difficulty by the number of bananas in the top right corner of each page. Easy word puzzles have one banana, more challenging puzzles have two or three bananas, and the most challenging word puzzles have four bananas. These banana designations are a fun way to determine whether each puzzle fits your mood. Truth is, sometimes we may be in the mood for a quick puzzle and would be more likely to choose a one banana. Even these one banana word puzzles are worth doing by expert word fashioners on occasions when they have limited time or energy to invest in the activity.

Along with the speedy anagram game Banana-grams, word game creators have come up with variations that are equally fun as well as useful in helping your children develop a rich vocabulary. Because children learn best while in the playful mode, playing new word games can only help with reading skills and reading fluency. Appletters and Pairsinpears are two games that are fun for both new readers and adults who love a word challenge.

Appletters is a game in which players use letter tiles to play a game similar to dominoes. Instead of matching dots on tiles, players add letters to make words. These words can be short or long, allowing players with different skills to play alongside each other while both sides have an enjoyable experience.

PairsinPears includes four full alphabets printed on tiles. Each alphabet is slightly different, either in color or form in order to keep them distinctive. Alphabet order, vowels and consonants, vocabulary, rhyming, and other literacy skills come into play in these fun games.

Both Appleletters and PairsinPears tiles come zipped in their own fruit-shaped pouches. Appletters tiles are nestled in a red cloth apple while the tiles of PairsinPears come in a green pear-shaped pouch. The pouches and their tiles are fun in themselves. There's something really satisfying in the feel of the tiles as you scoop them up and squirrel them away. That in itself makes these games preferable to electronic versions, at least from my perspective.