My kids like to pass the time in the car playing games on their various devices. They get excited about apps like “Mine Craft,” “Temple Run,” and (thank goodness it’s educational), “Simple Physics.”
“Do you want to try Mine Craft Mom?” they often ask.
I shake my head. “I don’t like video games, remember?”
Back behind the screens they go.
I prefer books to games, but unfortunately, I get car sick. If I want entertainment on the fly, I like to find educational quizzes that won’t make me queasy. For the Thanksgiving holiday, I told you about Sporcle. For spring break, I’ll introduce you to the Merriam-Webster site.
Of course you can use www.merriam-webster.com to look up unknown words, but did you know you can also find word games to test your vocabulary, spelling skill, or general knowledge?
This word nerd got sucked in quickly. Besides taking pride in my vocabulary, I have a competitive streak. So, when I scored lower that the average teen on my first crack at the vocabulary quiz, I decided I had to try again.
Second time went better. I earned an above average score for my age group (which will remain a mystery). It was comforting to see that the average score per age group increases up through the sixties. More proof that with age, comes wisdom.
How Merriam-Webster.com Can Help You
There are four games at the site, with links to other brain training fun:
- The Vocabulary Quiz– you get a word and must choose a definition from four one-word answers
- Spell It– you click a prompt to hear and then spell commonly misspelled words
- Name That Thing– you must name the item pictured
- True/False– a brief quiz about “stuff worth knowing”
With all the games, speed matters, so don’t waste time pondering!
You can also sign up to receive the “Word of the Day” via email, Twitter, or Facebook. Yay! More fodder for my Wondrous Words Wednesday posts.
Finally, you can download the free Merriam-Webster app for iPhone, iPad, and Android. From the app you can look words up, save your favorites, and access the Word of the Day. Unfortunately, the games don’t come with the app. You’ll have to use your web browser to quiz your friends and family members while on road trip.
My kids will love me.
So go check it out, and have fun learning. Maybe we can compare scores.
How do you train your brain? What games, apps, and sites do you find most helpful? Please share!Thanks for stopping by!
Julia
Spot on with this write-up, I absolutely think this amazing site needs a great deal more attention.
I’ll probably be back again to read through more, thanks for the advice!
This sounds great for our family! I noticed yesterday when I helped my 22-year old son move that his iPod announced the word of the day for him…how word-nerdy of him to care about such a thing! I went to the merriam-webster link you posted above but since in the first nine seconds it wasn’t super-obvious how to make their cool games appear on my iPhone I came back here to post this note of thanks. On our Easter road trip I will have my daughter show me how to get it on the phone and then quiz her the rest of the trip. Thank you so much for being so nerdy!
Jane, It might be hard to do the games on your iPhone – you’ll have to use the web browser, and typing in the answers could get tricky- especially with a timer to pressure you! Hopefully you’ll still be able to do it- please let me know!
Julia,
Thank you for correcting me. I barely can do this kind of thing but I am ‘game’.
Love this – I think I’m getting a new phone this summer and this will be the first thing on it! Thanks for the word love 🙂
Very good to know Julia. 😉 Thank you for sharing. I’m sure my boys will be excited about this too. 😉
Hester, 😉
My thoughts, exactly: cool!
It must have been just that you were getting accustomed to the set-up of the game that you scored lower in your first round(?) 🙂
Debbie, Thanks for having a good excuse in mind for me!
Cool, I wish I had known about this when I was teaching (not that we had much technology access, but still…it would have been nice). I find it hard to believe you scored lower than the average teenager on your first try, I wonder what happened?
Thanks for having faith in my word nerdiness!