There are ways to keep kids busy, parents sane
Article Last Updated: 07/08/2007 11:35:53 PM MDT
Salt Lake Tribune
Every parent wrestles with how to keep their school-age kids busy for the summer. Here are some tips that will keep their bodies occupied and their minds active, according to Vielka McFarlane, an educator and chief executive of Celerity Educational Group:
* Chess and Scrabble – Chess accesses math and sequencing skills. Scrabble is an excellent way of building vocabulary.
Source: SLT
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
I didn’t think about scrabble. Good one!
I wonder how to make Scrabble to add vocabulary. It only build spelling capability not vocabulary because usually the players do not know the meaning of the words they make.
the players dont know the meaning of the words they make???
what are you talking about?
I think originally the guy who invented Scrabble did so with the idea of improving vocabulary – to stimulate people to look up new words they encounter. As it became a more competitive ‘sport’ the notion of knowing more words became secondary – knowing odd words which often aren’t actually in the common English language usage (a whole series of odd words with 2 letters or foreign words where “Q” isn’t followed by “U” etc) became more important. The key factor though is that bluffing became very important at high level play – a 7 letter word which looks real is a killer.
So in the end there are a lot of players who play for the competition and the original intent is lost.
See “word freak” by Stefan Fatsis, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, who wrote about his own fascination with serious scrabble.