Everyone knows Scrabble, but it’s the best-known spelling game for a reason. And even better than that, you can work on your math at the same time that you work on your spelling!

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Every word you put down must connect with another word, so it’s like you’re making a big crossword puzzle. The strategic part is in maximizing your points. There are certain squares that allow you to double or even triple the score for a single letter or even a whole word. Different letters are worth different amounts, so if you get a couple of high-point letters on a triple-word space, you can really up your score.

When we’ve played with our kids, we make it so we can all see everyone’s tiles. We also freely trade tiles. Spelling is already a big challenge for our kids, so we don’t keep score, instead choosing to focus all our attention on spelling different words. Our goal changes to just create the best acrostic puzzle we can.

Blank tiles can be used when you don’t have a needed letter, but they’re not worth any points.

Did you know you can modify your Scrabble set to create Math Scrabble? Just use a sharpie to write on the back of your wooden Scrabble tiles; this Instructable has detailed instructions. We also enjoy playing Math Scrabble cooperatively as a family, and this is a much cheaper option than Mobi tiles or Equate.

If you’re low on space, you can even get rid of the board and just play loose on a tabletop (like Bananagrams is played). As it is, we got rid of our box and have our tiles and stands in a bag. The board is kept in a separate stack.