Bananas for Bananagrams Giveaway!

My family is addicted to games!  Board games, card games, computer games....pretty much any game or puzzle.  If you have been to my house you have likely seen our game closet.  Four large jam packed shelves of games.  I am particularly partial to educational games and games that require strategical thinking.  I am fortunate that Matthew shares the same passion.  Rarely a day goes by that he and I don't play a game together....and it usually is more than one.  Lately, our favorites are

Skip-Bo (cards)

Pyramath (math card game)

Totally Tut (math board game)

Othello (strategy game)

500+ piece Jigsaw Puzzles

and.....BANANAGRAMS!!!!

I have seen this brightly colored bag at the store numerous times and I have seen it on Amazon also as I've done searches for new games to play.  I have passed it by without a second thought.  Regrets!  Recently my nephew, Ethan, came to visit and brought his Bananagrams with him.  He and Matthew played it over and over again and I was so very please to see Matthew enjoying it!  After all, as a homeschool family we are always looking for ways to make learning fun.  Then.....I played.  I was instantly hooked.  Matthew and I decided to put it on his Amazon wishlist for Christmas.  I knew how much they were at the store ($14.99) so I set out for my favorite place to shop, E-bay, to see if I could get a better deal.  No way :(  They were just as much, if not more!  After talking with Matthew over and over about how much we LOVE Bananagrams I broke down and bought it at Target as a surprise for him last week when he was sick.  Yeah, that's right, I bought it for him.  It's not like I was wanting it or anything!  Ha ha!  Who am I kidding?  We tore into that game faster than lightening and off we went for a Bananagram marathon!

In case you have never heard of Bananagrams, let me introduce you and give you the short and sweet version of how to play.  It is a game similar to Scrabble.  It is for ages 7 and up.  This cute little banana shaped bag holds 144 letter tiles.  Each player receives 21 tiles to start (when playing with 2 players).  Your mission is to create as many connecting words as possible.  Once you have used all of your letters yell "Peel!" and both players pick another tile.  If you have a tile you don't want to use you can return it to the pile, but then you have to pick 3 more.  The winner is the person who finishes first and there are no tiles remaining.

The included instruction booklet gives other game ideas too.  Matthew and I thought of a few "adjustments" to even the playing field a bit when we play together.  If I call out "Peel!", he only has to pick up if he has less than 5 tiles he is trying to use.  This way he doesn't get overwhelmed with tiles.  Also, we determine the winner by who has used the most tiles.  We also thought of different ways to use this game along with our language arts and spelling lessons and/or to make it more challenging.  Here are some of those ideas.

• Only certain parts of speech can be used.  For example, play a game where you can only have words that are adjectives and verbs.
• Only certain subjects can be used.  For example, play a game where you can only have words that are related to food.
• Lay out your child's spelling list and challenge them to spell as many of their words as possible with their tiles.  Whenever they spell one they can yell "Peel!" (even if they have tiles left over) and their opponent has to pick up....but not them!
• Set a timer for a pre-determined time (say....5 minutes) and each time the timer goes off you have to switch places with your opponent and play on their tiles.

So, here is a picture of Matthew after our most recent game.  He impressed me so much with using some of the most challenging letters!  

Q, Z, X.....!  Wow, he used Q to spell quiz and quill.  He used Z to spell doze.  Spelling has never been so much fun!  Notice down at the bottom that one of his words is "tic"....so appropriate for a boy with Tourette Syndrome :)

So, as I'm writing this post I'm realizing that I would LOVE for one of my readers to have Bananagrams.  I'm inspired to do a giveaway.  It's your lucky day!

 This Giveaway has ended.

Congratulations Sarah from Growing For Christ!!!

The winner of this giveaway will receive one Bananagrams game!  Be sure to leave ONE comment for EACH entry and include a way for me to contact you.  The winner will be drawn using Random.org on Saturday, July 23, 2011 at 9:00 AM EST.  The winner will have 48 hours to respond.  If I don't hear back from you then I'll pick another winner, so mark your calendar and keep an eye out!  Here is how to enter....

Required

• Be a public follower using GFC or Networked Blogs (if you already are then leave a comment telling me)

Optional Additional Entries

• Share this blog post on Facebook

• Post on your own blog about this giveaway with a link for your readers to come visit it (leave a comment with a link to your own post on your blog)

• Find another post on my blog that interests you and leave a comment telling me which one and why (be sure to leave that comment here and not at that other post....or do it in both places if it suits your fancy)