For the month of March, each day I am writing and posting a slice of my life, hosted by Two Writing Teachers.
March Slice of Life Challenge Day 3: Juicy Words
You might be a teacher's kid....if you play word games on walks and car rides like my kids and I do.
I'm not sure how this "game" started. Perhaps one of them learned it at school and taught it to us all. I really don't recall. Regardless, my children and I have been playing this for at least five years. We call it the word game.
How does one play the word game? Glad you asked. Someone begins with a word. The next person must come up with a word that begins with the last letter of the word the person before him or her said. For example, if I started with the word slice, the next person would need to say a word that began with the letter e, like elephant. The next person would need to come up with a word that began with the letter t, like timber. Then the next person would determine a word that started with r, like recycle.
Easy, right?
Last night, as we took our dogs for their nightly stroll, we kept this game going for at least thirty minutes. Since I have no idea if this rule has any official rules, our family came up with the following rules: You cannot repeat a word within the same game, No proper nouns, and Words in other languages count.
We hadn't played this game in a few months. The teacher in me was delighted to hear how my children's vocabulary has expanded since we last played. My son used many science words like exoskeleton, osmosis, and biome. My daughter also used words she's studying in social studies like judicial, executive, senate, and colonize.
In general, our family seems to select words that end in the letter e often. Sometimes this causes squabbles when someone runs out of words that begin with e.
This game doesn't involve any kind of points. It doesn't have a winner or a loser. Perhaps we are all just a little nerdy, especially when it comes to words.
One of my favorite moments of last night's game was when my son was thinking of a word that began with y. My daughter and I both yelled out suggestions like yam and yellow; he retorted, "those aren't juicy enough!"
"What do you mean by juicy?" I asked my thirteen-year-old son.
"A long and interesting word," He replied. My daughter nodded.
This made me grin. I will have to remember to think of more juicy words next time!
What fun! I like the idea of "juicy" words. Makes me smile. And also, I can only imagine that the e words are, indeed, problematic over time...
ReplyDeleteThanks,Amanda!It is definitely more fun calling words juicy!
DeleteWe do these kinds of games (as much as Isabelle will allow it) in the car too! We opted for a minivan WITHOUT a DVD player since I want to use car time as a time to talk. (We do listen to music though.)
ReplyDeleteWe also have a van without a DVD player. My kids do watch on long car trips, but I try (as much as possible) to avoid screens
DeleteThanks for capturing The Word game so we'll! I am sure this will be a game for us and our children as they grow. It sounds like a fun way to pass the time and keep the family talking.
ReplyDeleteThis brings back memories of car games, but I don’t recall playing this particular one. I also remember a lot of bus and van games from high school and college. And I’m thinking about how the word game might be use in English classes to get to know students or as a review of a novel.
ReplyDelete