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Thursday 20 September 2012

Review: Mattel Junior Scrabble Boardgame

It's funny how things work out, a few weeks back JJ played scrabble with his Nan whilst we were at her house for Sunday lunch. It was his first time to play and he had an absolute blast, coming away saying we needed to get him scrabble for his birthday. Grandma, who watched him play tells me he was really very good and far beyond his years - that's my boy!

So imagine my delight when I was contacted and asked if we would like to review Junior Scrabble. JJ and I have played this quite a few times so far and I have to admit that I have been enjoying myself. I've never played scrabble before, I did not really think it was my kind of thing, but it seems I am mistaken.  It has been quite fun to stretch myself and increase my vocabulary.

Junior Scrabble is billed as being suitable for 2 - 4 players ages 5 - 10 years, so I did have my reservations before we played as JJ is 9 and very intelligent for his age but I need not have worried, there is enough in this game for him. I also worried that the age range was a bit wide, I know what a struggle it is to get my 9 year old to play with his 5 year old sisters.  Their abilities are just on different spectrum's at the moment but what I did not realise is that Junior Scrabble has a double sided playing board, so there are two games.  How sensible is that?  And how wonderful to be able to buy a board game that grows with your child.

I played the younger game with my 5 year old twin girls, at the moment they are both just learning to read but their abilities are quite different. One of them found it far easier than the other but they both enjoyed working with Mummy to try and figure out the letters and sounds that go in the words and match the pictures on the board.

Game play only lasted us about 15 minutes as their attention span when it involves work is still fairly short but I can imagine that in six months or so they will be much better equipped to be able to do the whole grid in this first game.

The real success for us was the more grown up scrabble board.  It does differ slightly to the adult version in that there are not any scores on the tiles but fundamentally it is the same game with slightly easier rules. A game takes JJ and I anywhere between 20 minutes and an hour depending on how fast we manage to block ourselves!



Here are the plus points of this board game -
  • Education dressed up as fun, what more can any parent ask for?
  • The board, box and tiles are all well made and look durable, as if they will last a long time.
  • There are 2 age appropriate games, so it has longevity.
  • A game can be played fairly quickly if need be.
  • The game is good value for money at £17.99 on Amazon. It would make a great Christmas gift I am sure.
  • The instructions are easy to read and understand and JJ was able to sort it all out and set u the game.
And the cons -
  • No major faults or flaws to note to be honest! The only comments that JJ made was that to make the game more fun he would have liked scores on the tiles and a holder for his tiles so I could not see what he had!  Ohh Mr Competitive.
I would happily recommend Junior Scrabble as a great educational board game that is heaps of fun too.


Disclosure:  We received this game free of charge for he purposes of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

1 comment:

  1. As a mom, i always want that my kids would play educational games..i don't want them to be like other kids..scrabble is a very nice game, it can broaden their minds and they could really learn from it.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comment, I will respond real soon. Mich x