The official start of classes based on the Department of Education’s guidelines is fast approaching. Just one more week and classes will officially start in the Philippines. This was already delayed because of the pandemic and schools needed to do some adjustments in educating most children these days.

I’m writing this blog post today to help me remember what we did most of the time last summer while on quarantine. Aside from making homemade ice creams and baking (you can read about our baking adventures here), we played a lot also. We played a lot of board games and card games. But aside from those, what I would consider our favorite game during the summer was Letter Dice.

This toy must have been around a decade already in our home. We only had one child when my husband and I bought it for around P300 at Toys R Us.

Last summer, we played with it again with the kids and I think it was the perfect time for it because all three of them were already ready for the challenges of the game. Even our 5-year-old was excited to join the game.

How to Play Letter Dice

This game can be played with teams or with individual players. Sometimes, we team up in pairs. Sometimes, we play as individual players.

There are letter dice with letters on the different faces of the die. there is a corresponding number for each letter also. There is a sundial clock. There is also a plastic cup.

The letter dice are put inside the cup and you shake them to reveal what letters you’ll have.

You need to form as many words as you can with the letters that you get after shaking the letters inside the plastic cup. The sundial clock is used as the timer for each player.

You can connect the words like what you do on Scrabble or you can form separate words.

Your score is the total of the numbers on the letters of the words you formed.

The player with the highest score after the agreed number of rounds is the winner.

Benefits of Playing Letter Dice

We played Letter Dice almost every day during the summer. We hardly had serious homeschool lessons, especially at the start of the quarantine period in our location.

But it didn’t bother me that my kids and I were just playing most of the time. They were learning while we were playing! How?

Let me share what they learned and how.

Since Letter Dice is a vocabulary game, my kids’ vocabulary improved. They paid more attention to words. They also paid attention to the spelling of words because they need to spell words correctly during the game for the words to be counted and for them to score. My kids learned and discovered new words by simply playing with me and my husband. Naturally, my husband and I know more words than the kids. So, when it was our turn, we used some words that sometimes, they still didn’t know. But after we used those words in one game, the kids would remember to use those words in our next games. During our games, we sometimes ask the kids if they know what the words that they are forming mean. They also ask us the meaning of the words that we are using in the game. It was a fun way to learn new words for them.

Boys are naturally drawn to games more than girls. They are naturally more competitive. Even my youngest child who is only five years old was very competitive. He really wanted to win. So, what he did was he wrote down the words that he wanted to remember and use in his next games in his notebook. He also got our Children’s Illustrated Dictionary and looked up some words that started or used letters with higher points. Examples of these letters with high points were Z, X and J. Then, he wrote the words that he found in his notebook again.

One time, I helped him by using Google and searching for words that started or had those letters. Then, I showed him the list and let him choose and copy the words that he wanted to use in our next games.

I love that because of the game, our kids’ vocabulary improved a lot and that they can do mental addition faster.

What motivated them to learn mental addition faster? They wanted to know their score and compute it themselves so as to make sure that they are not being cheated or to make sure that their score was added correctly.

I was one happy homeschool mom!

But those are not the only things they learned while playing this game.

My two older boys had a lot of practice writing numbers in columns and adding them. My youngest has not tried this yet. He can only add single digits. All boys got to practice writing numbers as they noted our scores. My kids are not fond of writing so, I loved that during the game, they are eager to write numbers (our scores or their score).

The other lessons our kids learned in playing this game included being a good sport, taking turns, working as a team, and discovering other fun activities that did not require gadget or internet use.

Playing this game with our kids enabled me and my husband to strengthen our relationship with them and to build many happy memories with them on top of teaching them language and arithmetic.

Our games or our children’s games were not all fun and happy. There were times when they would fight each other. They are so competitive and strong-willed. But I am glad that my husband and I are home to act as referees and to teach them values and lessons on playing fair, taking turns, being a good sport, and valuing relationships over winning.

I so love this game! I’m so glad that my husband and I bought this toy around a decade ago. It was a cheap investment with many valuable returns many years after!

I recommend this toy to parents who are looking for alternative activities for their kids and who want to use the play-based approach to homeschooling. I believe that kids learn even while playing and that they remember more lessons when they are having fun.

If you want to learn more about homeschooling and fun ways to educate your children this school year, I invite you to join the Homeschooling Parents Support Group PH on Facebook. I founded this group around 5 months ago to help fellow parents who suddenly find themselves needing to homeschool their children because of the pandemic.