Boggle: Vocabulary Games for Kids

The two most important men in my life right now are my nephews. They are fun, curious little boys who are into anything electronic. They have every new game and toy that requires batteries or needs plugged into a wall. They are the newest generation of kids…the ones that occupy their time with Yu-Gi-Oh! and a Nintendo game they call Crash Bandicoot. It has become quite clear to me that my sister's best form of discipline is taking their Game Boy Advance systems away. Trust me, it's like taking a telephone away from a teenage girl. Quite frankly, their romance with electronic gadgets makes me nauseous, but I don't have kids, so I keep my mouth shut and don't make inquiries into my sister's parenting techniques. The real question is - why are the boys so intrigued by one item in the meager toy box that I keep for them at my apartment? Why are they taken by something that has no electronic function what-so-ever?

Boggle is a game that I began playing with my mother when I was a teenager. It was one of those Christmas gifts my mother selected in order to occupy my attention on Christmas Eve to ensure that I stayed out of the gifts and cookies. My mother was a smart woman, but she did not graduate college. In fact, she was probably fortunate to graduate high school, but she was a huge fan of word games. Scrabble, Upwords, Word Yahtzee - they are all forms of vocabulary games. If it had to do with letters and words, my mom was all for it! And believe me when I say that my mother, eighty pounds soaking-wet, was as competitive as a NASCAR racer when it game to vocabulary games. As a competitor, you did not mess with her, and you did not bend the rules. On that Christmas Eve, I was a novice at Boggle. But I wasn't about to let my mother win, and she wasn't about to let her 8 year old daughter outsmart her. Time after time, we dueled as the time sands fells, and I became aware of 3, 4, and 5 letter words that I never even knew existed.

Frankly, I wasn't much competition for my mother's practiced mind at any of the various vocabulary games that we played - let alone this time-crunch game known as Boggle. My youthful vigor did not compensate the fact that my brain wasn't trained to look for many of the words. She knew so many more words - many in fact, that I hadn't even heard, but I learned. I became a vocabulary game monster! I gobbled up the words that she scribbled on her lists, and I never forgot them! I added them to my lists when applicable, and before Easter, I was the Boggle champion of the house.

The attraction I had to the game may have been more about the competitive element of the game, but my nephews have fallen in love with the game for another reason. They don't care about learning vocabulary, to them, the game is just plain noisy! The game of Boggle is loud and gives children an opportunity to drive anyone in the house insane. If you've never seen the game, it consists of 3 components. The plastic container is a square, approximately 4 X 4 inches with a lid of similar dimensions. Inside the container is a grid that allows for the placement of 16 dice that display letters (in contrast to dots). A sand-timer with a 3-minute elapse time accompanies the game. Lastly, paper and pencil are integral materials as they are used to record each player's "answers."

The concept of the game is for each player to "search" for vocabulary words that they are able to construct from the cubes that are showing face-up. The catch is that the letters must touch (be adjacent, next to, or diagonally from), and players may not utilize a letter more than once per word. After the three minutes have elapsed, and each participant has written down as many words as they could construct (of 3 letters or more), both players lay down their pencils and gear up for round two of the game, also known as the scoring section.

Scoring is actually a very fun and integral part of the game - it's not just an easy point assignment. Each participant will read off his/her list of words. If a word is given that is listed on another players list, then that word is eliminated from everyone's list. After duplicate words have been crossed-off of the lists, each player adds up the amount of words that remain (scoring is higher for longer words). The player that has the highest points wins.

My nephews are only 4 and 6, but they love this game! They fight over taking turns to "shuffle" the dice. They make noise - and they make up cute little songs to go along with the game as they do so. The only deterrent is that they think the 3 minute timer also functions as the length of time in which they can make a racket! But they love it, so I love it. In all sincerity, this game is overlooked by many, and it doesn't get enough credit as being an educational tool that can help improve vocabulary. It's really great for young kids. My nephews know basic vocabulary like the three-letter words cat and pop - so for them, this veiled vocabulary game is cool!

The educator in me loves the idea that they are building their reading abilities through a simple vocabulary game! They constantly want to know what my words mean! Who could ask for a more interesting teachable moment? When they beat me at my own game, I may only have partial hearing, but I'll know that I've done my job as an aunt.