We have discovered the joys of Bananagrams.  For the uninitiated, it's a game that comes with letter tiles, similar to those used in Scrabble.  The tiles are packaged in a cute sack shaped like a banana.  We got our set at AC Moore.  The title of the game is a play on words (anagrams--when you make new words from the letters of other words).  The game is similar to Scrabble, but it's every man for himself.  Each player gets their own tiles and then makes up their own words in a crossword-like layout.  The winner is determined by who makes up the most words and uses up all of their tiles.  I bought the game on J's recommendation--she played it at school and said, "It's really fun, Mom!"

Our entire family enjoys the game, even the 5 year old.  My husband can generally wipe the floor with anyone in Scrabble, so I knew he would be good at this.  What levels the playing field for all of us it that it's the amount of words you make, not the length of each word, that counts.  This means that all of us at least have a fighting chance, but I'll be honest--he still wins almost all of the time.

No, K doesn't really know how to spell, but she can do her name (if she pulls all the right letters) or J's name.  She will also sometimes spell dog or cat.  Most of the time she just puts all of the letters in a big long line to make some crazy word.  But she's learning to identify all of the letters, and spell a few simple ones.  Sometimes I will have her make words on a list that I make up--things like "I", "am", "be", "and", etc.  I'm always pleasantly surprised by how well J does when we play, and some of the words that she can come up with.  I'm finally starting to see the results from all of the reading.  That's pretty exciting. 

This game saved us from a good deal of boredom on a trip to grandma's this past weekend.  Sometimes there's not a lot for the girls to do there, so this really helped pass time during our visit.  The picture is from J's successful attempt to use all of the letter tiles in one giant puzzle.

Go bananas with your family!