Favorite Board Games for Building Vocabulary
Gameschooling is all the rage these days, but many of the games you’ll see recommended are games targeted at building math and problem-solving skills. As someone who loves words dearly, I wanted to recommend games that you can use to build your children’s vocabulary!
These are games that build spelling skills, vocabulary, and all sorts of skills that grow through simply playing with words and having fun with words! And bonus, these games are largely not in the obvious "school games" category, like like the "games" we invent in an attempt to make spelling more fun. :)
Most of these games are small in size and for several of them, I offer ideas on how you could DIY the game in order to play without having to buy the actual game. Many of the games are actually considered more like "party games"!
I hope you enjoy my suggestions on how to make the most of the learning that can happen when playing some of these games! Most of all, I hope that you are encouraged to think beyond the screen and think about what technology-free learning games you can play alongside your teens and preteens!
Please note that pretty much all of these games are best for ages 8-9 and up. To begin really playing with spelling and definitions in this way, it's best to play with kids that already have a solid foundation of reading and writing so that they don't become too frustrated by the challenge of the game. Another option, if you have younger kids who want to join, is to have them begin by playing "on a team" with you.
If you’d prefer to watch a video, you can click on this youtube video, but if you’d prefer to read the information, scroll on down and keep reading!
Boggle
Boggle is a longtime family favorite for us. Be warned, it can get a little competitive, and you may want to have a dictionary or app handy to look up words that one particular player insists are actual words (because it’s very possible that they may not be recognized as actual words by the wider population).
Balderdash
Balderdash was my favorite game when I was growing up, and I often tried to convince my family to play it with me at every family get-together. This game take rare words (that really do exist) and has players compete to come up with creative-but-believable definitions for each word.
Quiddler
Quiddler is a small, compact card game, and one that’s easily played by younger children. You draw cards and attempt to build a hand in which all of your cards work together to spell words. Certain letters have ah higher point value than others.
Scrabble
This is, of course, the classic vocabulary-building and spelling game that everyone thinks of! This is also a game that can get rather competitive, so, be sure to keep your dictionary handy!
Codenames
Codenames is not one of the first games you might think of when it comes to building vocabulary, but it is excellent for building reasoning skills regarding which words work together and in what ways. Players have to think about words with multiple definitions, and carefully give clues that allow their teammates to guess the RIGHT word, but not any of the WRONG words
Taboo
The classic party game is excellent for building vocabulary!
60 Second Slam!
Players are given a category, and asked to come up with 26 words (one for each letter of the alphabet!) within that category…in less than 60 seconds!
I hope that these game ideas inspired you about how you can use games to build vocabulary and awareness of the way words work and interact with each other…all which having fun as a family! (As long as no one gets into any arguments about the existence of a particular word!)