Scrabble Junior Floor Puzzle

Eager to find some educational yet fun and exciting games for my young children, I came across the Junior Scrabble games. I couldn’t decide which would be better suited for both children (aged 4 and 6) and so decided to get both the Scrabble Junior board game and the Scrabble Junior Floor Puzzle. The floor puzzle seemed more suited for my 4 year old as she prefers jigsaws and seemed a little babyish for my 6 year old who thinks jigsaws are for toddlers (her words! She obviously hasn’t ever completed a Wasgij!).

The 49 piece puzzle is more than a normal jigsaw and provides fun that goes beyond just building the puzzle in the right order. There are further games to play beyond completing the puzzle. For example, some of the words on the puzzle have a letter missing and the child must figure out which one it is. For more help they can use the special letter tiles to find the right letter for each blank space. As there are 26 letters missing (one for each letter of the alphabet), the child can turn over the tile for a picture of the corresponding word. This is a great incentive for children and motivation that they are on the right lines.

My youngest child is still in nursery so is only just learning sounds and the look of letters (at home, not yet in a school environment), and so we don’t expect her to know what letter is missing, but more to give her an understanding of how sounds and letters are formed and used, with a little guidance from an adult. She finds it fun and my eldest does too although manages to play this with ease as she is now fully reading. I often have to play this alone with my youngest child as my eldest just tells her the answer and obviously this isn’t the best way to learn. It doesn’t really have the capacity to play as a 2 player game and is only really meant for 1 player with help and guidance from a mummy or daddy!

The box in which the game comes has a sturdy carry handle, and although I put it away on the shelf, my daughter doesn’t let me carry it there and this is all part of the fun for her. Something she can do without mummy’s help. Even though this is not part of the game at all, I do quite like this little feature as it promotes a little independence to my daughter who often expects me to do everything for her!

The puzzle when it is finished measures 50cm x 50cm so a nice size for little hands. The game is suitable for around 3 and 4 year olds, and I would say won’t really see them much past 5, so has a fairly short life span.

A fairly good game, but without much scope or room for more than 1 play. This is really just a glorified jigsaw and we much prefer the Junior Scrabble. It does however, provide a decent start for any 3 to 4 year old of letters and sounds and how these come together to form words.

We picked this up from Amazon for around £2 plus a couple of pounds for postage.