Quiddler the fun fast-paced spelling game

The other day I was looking for a quick game to play with my kids.  We had about 15 minutes, and they boys wanted to play a game.  So I pulled out Quiddler and introduced them to this fun quick game.

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What is Quiddler?

Quiddler is made by the same company as Five Crowns and is also a rummy-type game.  The big difference?  Instead of playing with a traditional deck of cards, your cards are letters.  You’re not forming sets, you’re forming words.

You can see why I called this a spelling or vocabulary game, because the better you spell and the more words you know, the more quickly you can finish your hand. As I was trying to figure out how to organize my various game posts, I categorized this as a learning game (it could also have been a card game), and it’s a great way to practice spelling strategies.

Unlike Scrabble though, you are not limited by the letters you have and are constantly getting a new card (I hate Scrabble, and refuse to play it).

How do you play Quiddler?

There are seven rounds in a full Quiddler game.  The first round you have three cards.  The last round you have 10 cards.  Each round you gain one more card.

Your goal is to form words with your cards, and each word has to have a minimum of two cards (I think officially the rules say 3, but we house-ruled two because of the blends and stuff).

You have to use all of your cards to form your words.  On your turn you pick up a card; either the known card from the discard pile, or the mystery from the deck.

Once someone has used all of their cards to form words, everyone else gets one more turn to do their best to make some words.  Once you get up to five cards it’s pretty easy to make words.

Officially you’re supposed to keep a running score for the whole game and add up the points.  To make it less competitive, and something Princess would enjoy more we only do winner for the round.  Also, then I don’t have to dig up paper to keep score.  Sometimes I’m lazy.

Get your own copy of Quiddler

You can pick up a copy on Amazon*.  Or, I’ve seen it at most chain stores (Wal-Mart, Barnes and Noble, etc).  I also found a clearance copy of a travel version.  It comes in a cute little tin, and is about half the size.  I picked up Quiddler*, Five Crowns*, and Set* (we haven’t played this one yet) in a little bitty tin that fits easily in my purse (Oh, they’ve got a set with all 3 of these games in a cute little bag*).  I LOVE that.

Seriously, isn’t that so stinkin’ cute and little?

Want some more word games?

Then check out these other posts:

• Adventures in Reading with Zig Zag Zebra (learn to read games)
• Once Upon a Time story-telling game
• Sadly all of my other reading-related games went out of print, so I’ll need to search to see what else I have later.