I don’t remember the first time I played Scrabble but I also don’t remember ever not playing Scrabble. My mom is a word-lover and my brother and I were “playing” Scrabble before we could even spell. We still love that game and play it often. But sometimes you just want to try something new, something a little different. We’ve had several games come and go through the years and I think we’ve found our next favorite:
XoomCubes.
A box of
XoomCubes comes packaged with 4 sets of colored cubes with letters on them, a winner’s flag, and an instruction booklet. The directions provide guidelines on how to play timed games, group (potluck) games, and letter &/or word races. The directions provide just enough information to get you started, but ultimately your group makes the rules. And you can also make up new variations that aren’t listed in the booklet! That comes in very handy when you have small children playing.
For the Potluck games, you place all of the cubes into the center of the table. One way to play is to pick a theme (say animals) and let people try to spell types of animals. The one with the most wins! Another way to play is to choose a word (such as SIMPLE) and the person to finds it first is the winner!
When you aren’t playing Potluck, each player picks out their own color cubes. As a group you can decide if you want to play a racing game where each player rolls their cubes and the first person to spell any word wins. Or you can say first person to spell a color (or celebrity’s name or city or sport or whatever the group chooses) wins! You can also have timed races where you are given a specific time period (we usually did 30 seconds) and you have try to use all your cubes to spell as many words as possible. The person with the most words wins! For the timed races there is a flag to place in the center of the table. The first person to grab the flag after completing the task wins!
We played with our family on Thanksgiving Day and then again with friends a few nights later. We came up with a variation that’s really fun. Try to make a complete sentence using all of your cubes. You should have heard some of those sentences! Mercy!
This is a fun and easy to learn game that can be adapted to fit any age range. There’s still time to get a set of XoomCubes before Christmas! Next week we will choose one SIMPLE reader to win a set of XoomCubes. But if you want to order now, click here and use the code XOOM4FUN between now and the end of December to get free shipping!
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A SIMPLE GIVEAWAY!
One SIMPLE reader will win a set of XoomCubes! Here is how to enter:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I think my family would really enjoy the timed races variation!
I would play it as racing game where each player rolls their cubes and the first person to spell any word wins.
I think we’d enjoy the timed races since we’re so competitive. haha
The sentence version sounds like a hoot.
Pot luck games.
racing game
Pot luck sounds like fun.
the complete sentence
pot luck games.
My family would like the potluck games!
Yeah I think my family would like the potluck version. Thanks for the chance to win, looks fun!
I like the Potluck games!
Potluck sounds fun
the potluck sounds like fun
XOOM CUBES – SET A
We’d like the Complete Sentence Game version.
I think we’d enjoy the timed game the best.
set A
http://www.thesimplemoms.com/2013/12/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas-shutterbug-saturday.html#comment-208647
The Potluck option sounds like a lot of fun!
we have older children so we would probably play the make a sentence game.
I think we would enjoy racing to be the first one to spell a specific thing, like an animal, a color, a celebrity, etc.
I think the one where you do the timed race and then grab a flag sounds fun!
The Potluck games sound pretty fun, a little like Boggle! I love word games!
This looks like such a fun and learning game to play with the kids. I think we might do the potluck/group variation with our friends but just the word/letter version when playing with our kids
Group games
I like set B
I don’t really like competitive games so I think I would like the pot luck games!
I think this is great. We would probably have fun with any we are always looking to add a twist in our own way.
Sounds fun! I think I’d like the pot luck games, but the really competitive side of me says the timed races would be super fun!
We’d start with one word and then change letters to make other words….like start with “HAT” and the next child could change to “P” for PAT….and then another child could add an S for SPAT, etc….and see how much we could get before running out of ideas!
Always looking for more/new games for the family.
I think I would like the pot luck games the best!