Earlier in the summer, I posted about Dutch Blitz, a game that our family loves to play. I wanted to share another game that we also enjoy! It’s called Fast Scrabble.

I’m not the biggest fan of traditional Scrabble, simply because depending on with whom you are playing, it can take a long time and get kind of boring. However, this “remix” is much more fun than the original! And, as a bonus, if you already have a Scrabble set, you can play it TONIGHT without having to buy anything special. If you don’t own any Scrabble tiles, you can snag them on ebay or Amazon (use those SwagBucks gift cards you’ve been earning!). I just got my tiles “for free” with an Amazon gift card from SwagBucks!)You’ll need at least one full set of Scrabble tiles, but it’s a lot of fun to use more than one set if you’re playing with a group of people (more than 3 or 4).

Start by turning all of the tiles face down on the table. Everyone draws seven tiles, and then turns them over when the game begins. The point is to form your own Scrabble-style crossword puzzle using the tiles you have drawn. (You follow standard Scrabble rules, such as no foreign words, no abbreviations, and no proper nouns.) As soon as one person uses all his or her tiles, they yell “draw two!” and everyone has to take two more tiles. At any point in the game you may completely rearrange all of your tiles and start over. This continues until all the tiles in the center have been used up. The first one to finish their puzzle wins!

This game has been recently marketed under the name “Bananagrams,” but you don’t have to buy a special set like that to play. Just grab those old Scrabble tiles you never use and get ready for a fun, fast-paced game with your family!