My kids LOVE playing with our Bananagram tiles! If your kids are interested in playing with letters, these can be an excellent option for you. It’s easy to rearrange them to see how to create different words.

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Can I make a confession? My family has NEVER played Bananagrams by the published rules. You read that right: never. Mostly because my kids aren’t strong spellers yet, but also because I don’t do well with any sort of time pressure.

There are all sorts of cute words you say at different spots that make for great puns (like “Split!” or “Peel!”), but each player is making their own acrostic puzzle in front of them, and you’re seeing who can build their puzzle the fastest.

Instead, my family likes playing cooperatively. Like how we play Scrabble, we each have a pile of letters in front of us that we can all see. We take turns, but are happy to help and make suggestions when needed. We’re also happy to trade tiles freely. The goal is just to make the biggest acrostic puzzle we can, and it’s lots of fun this way!

My favorite thing about Bananagrams especially, is that the tiles just feel nice. Unlike Scrabble, with its wood tiles and sharp corners, Bananagrams’ tiles are smooth plastic that feel really nice in the hand. Of course, the downside is that you can’t write on the back of these tiles, so the skills you can practice with them are less diverse.