Word on the Street Junior Review by Crafty

When I received my March Awesome Pack, I mentioned that I wanted to review each of the games as we played them. We played Word on the Street Junior shortly after the box arrived; in fact we have played it several times, but I am just getting around to the review now.

I could give a million reasons why it took me so long to get this review written, but I want to be honest. I have a habit of saying yes to people or planning to do something, which results in me being overwhelmed, stressed, and forgetful. When this happens, I also have a habit of throwing my hands in the air and saying, "FORGET IT!" Then I choose not to do anything instead of having to pick what I can handle and what I can't. This review got caught up in the "Forget it" pile of things, but not because we didn't enjoy it or didn't like it. It was simply because my coping skills when it comes to stress are terrible. 

With that out of the way, on to the review! The first time we played the game, we set it up so that my daughter, who is nine, was on one team and my son, who is eight, and I were on the other team. This game is nice because it doesn't require more than one player on a team allowing the kids to play by themselves. However, having more than one person on a team does seem like the best way to play this game, because the game requires brainstorming and two brains are better than one, right?

The level of strategy in this game is enough to keep an adult interested, but not too much that the kids get frustrated. It requires the teams to come up with a list of words that fit a category and then choose a word they want to play in an attempt to "steal" the tiles off the board. I watched both of my kids think very hard about words with double letters, unusual letters, and more letters just so they could win the game. One of the things I really liked about this game was that it doesn't rush the kids into spelling words quickly. There is a timer that is used for brainstorming words that fit into the category, and once that time is up, the team must choose a word to play. The team can then take their time spelling that word out using the letters on the board. This has been extremely helpful in getting my eight-year-old to practice spelling.

This game is easily one of our favorites in this house. I regret not taking the time to get this review up sooner.