Bananagrams: Review

Amanda Cottingham | July 16, 2012 | 3 Comments

As promised in my previous post, where I made THIS for Tall Dad, we have now reviewed the Bananagrams that have been sent to us. We were sent three of the games in the range.

Banangrams

“The anagram game that will drive you bananas!”

Bananagrams is the first in the bunch, the game that started it all. Players race against each other to build crossword grids and use all their letter tiles. There’s no turn-taking to be found here—it all happens at once and it’s a race to the finish. No matter how old you are and how many anagram games you’ve played, Bananagrams is sure to drive you absolutely bananas … in the best possible way!

We played this whilst we were at our friends house this weekend. Everyone was impressed and enjoyed the game, it really was a race and so the competitiveness kicked in. Tall Dad was extremely fast at making the grid, and no I’m not sulking anymore!

The rules are quick and simple to understand, you can view them HERE. I thought we would only ever play it as a family, but it works really well (glass of Prosecco optional) as a game to play with friends. I would highly recommend it, easily portable, great value for money and very well made.

Tip: Works better to play it on a table rather than on the floor.

PairsinPairs

“Fresh fun comes in pears!”

PAIRSinPEARS, true to its name, is a fast-paced pair-making game, packed in a pear. Lettered tiles come in four distinct alphabet sets, and players race against each other to make connected pairs of words in matching patterns. It’s a great way for children to develop memory and cognitive skills while learning the alphabet, pattern recognition, word construction, vowels, vocabulary, rhyming and more. Deceptively simple and exceptionally fun, PAIRSinPEARS is perfect for family time and classroom activities.

Miss A (3) has been the official tester of this game, and again gave it a thumbs up.

There are lots of ways to play this game, HERE are some examples. We have found it great for recognition of letters. Miss A is really delighted with herself as she was able to pair up letters in the different patterns. I was so surprised how quickly she improved and the more we have done it, the quicker she is getting. We have also used it to make recognisable words up, such as Mummy and Daddy, and getting her find letters to copy them. I think the beauty of this game is, it will grow with your child as their knowledge increases. Once again, well made and fantastic value for money.

Zip-it

“The twenty-second word race you can play anyplace!”

ZIP-IT is an exhilarating, high-speed, two-player game played with 24 lettered cubes and colored scoring zippers that come built into the pouch. Each player takes 12 cubes and races against their opponent to build a word grid. One hand can be played in as little as 20 seconds, and everything you need is in the bag! Playable on an airplane or train tray, ZIP-IT is the ultimate travel game. Each pouch includes a WEORDS dictionary of weird words that win word games!

We can’t wait to use this when we go on holiday. We have a few plane and train journeys where this is going to be coming with us. I find that on a journey a child’s attention span is a lot less, with all of the excitement. I love that this is something that you can play extremely quickly, but keep coming back to it.

So overall we would really recommend all of the Bananagram games, they make perfect gifts and also great with the school holidays looming. Miss N (9) has enjoyed playing the games as have the adults. Sge has has even said she would like to play it at her next sleepover…praise indeed!

Bananagrams are available to purchase either online (Amazon) or in stores such as John Lewis or Tesco, priced at approximately £12 each. Prices do vary though, so it’s worth shopping around.

Thank you for reading

Incoming search terms:

play bananagrams online

Tags: Bananagrams, Letter and word recognition, PairinPairs, review, Zip-it

Category: Family, The Ana Mum Diary Reviews

Comments (3)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

Sam says:

July 16, 2012 at 12:54 pm

This looks ideal for family time, but what sort of age? Thinking of my older 3 sons who are 3 7 and 9.

S x
Sam recently posted..Whistling for my children?

Reply
- Amanda Cottingham says:
  
  July 16, 2012 at 1:02 pm
  
  Well my 3 year old loves the Pairs games, but I would say she could only play the simpler games that I described in the post. But I would imagine within a year or so she would be able to play it properly though. However for your older two I would says either of the other games would be fantastic. We had a really good fun playing the original Bananagrams with other adults, so it really does span the age groups!
  Thanks for the comment.
  Amanda x
  
  Reply
Nikki Thomas says:

July 17, 2012 at 2:25 pm

They sound amazing! I love the fact that they are so portable too, great for taking away with you!
Nikki Thomas recently posted..Surviving the school holidays (without breaking the bank!) (dofollow)

Reply