Play Candygrams your own way

Here what it says, straight from the Candygrams rulebook:

“Abbreviations, acronyms, and proper nouns are not allowed.”

Makes sense. Without rules, any game would never be fair. Who’d ever agree to take on a challenge, even a fun challenge, without a set of guidelines agreed on by every player? Sounds like pure chaos.

But, there are times when you’re simply feeling creative. How about playing Candygrams use ALL abbreviations, or ALL acronyms, or ALL proper nouns? After all, the game is incredibly flexible.

One great way to mix things up is to play Candygrams using only words from a specific category. For example, if you’re playing with a group of dog lovers, you could allow only words related to canines — bark, fetch, wagging, paw, puppies. Or, maybe you’re on a beach vacation. Agree to use words associated with your trip — sand, sun, swimming, waves, tides, taffy. You get the point.

Teachers, especially home educators, tell us how they like to play Candygrams in themed categories in order to help reinforce learning. Say you’re teaching kids about climate change. At the end of the lesson, pull out Candygrams and have your students make crosswords where all the words connect to weather — cloud, thunder, rain, umbrella, puddle, heat, drought.

So go ahead and play Candygrams your own way. See how much fun it is to throw out the rules and add your own twist to the game!