Over the past few years, there have been some fascinating joint interests across the internet: sourdough, banana bread, zoom quizzes, Tiger King, but it feels like none have taken the culture en masse by storm like Wordle. Its core gameplay was a classic, you have to guess a five-letter word, and if you get a letter in the right place, it shows up green; the correct letter but in the wrong place, it shows up yellow, the wrong letter entirely, and it is grey.
The thing that separated Wordle was its daily gimmick. By limiting gameplay to once a day, it became perfect to fit into the daily routine without becoming an overwhelming part of the day, and also, it was very sharable and shared it you did. As of 25th February 2022, over 5.4m people had shared their Wordle results on social media; that’s over 367,000 of you per day!
These daily games are an excellent way to start the day and get the brain whirring by igniting your problem-solving skills and engaging other essential information resources such as Wordle, word construction, and vocabulary. And the popularity of Wordle has led to several other daily games on various topics. So we want to bring you our top picks for Wordle-style games you can play with your kids before school:
Multiple Word Games (Dordle, Squabble, Xordle, Hello Wordl)
Did you like the simplicity of Wordle? Well, what if you had to solve two different Wordles at once? Or even two using the same letters and grid but with more guesses. Or even four, eight, 16 (Yes, someone made Sedecordle. Though I will add, it’s a bit much). For this, there are Dordle and Xordle. Or maybe you want to see how many Wordles you can solve against other players online in real-time (don’t worry, there’s no chat element, so there are no safety issues); for that, there’s Squabble. Finally, maybe you want to choose how long the words you’re trying to guess are; for that, there’s Hello Wordl.
The simplicity of the setup has allowed imagination and invention to run wild. Possibly even seeing the variety here will spark some idea of how to make their spin on the format in your child. These sorts of word games do an excellent first project if you think they might be interested in exploring the world of coding. And with it joining the syllabus, there’s never been a better time to look into this skill of the future.
Crosswordle
Crosswordle goes one step beyond many word games and asks you to solve a three-by-five grid of words as quickly as possible. It gives you yellow and green hints but also asks you to use all the letters you find on each line. Or at least, that’s how I think I played it.
I felt Crosswordle deserves its separate section because of how complex the actual solutions are; it’s much harder to guess your way through than work out the patterns and solutions. But as a result, it also makes achieving a solution feel much more satisfying. Plus, who doesn’t love to start the morning with a fresh cup of coffee and a good crossword?
Maths Games (Nerdle, Primel)
Nerdle takes the Wordle premise and applies it to guessing a simple mathematical sum, whereas Primel asks you to imagine a daily random prime number. But, then, much like Wordle gets you thinking about vocabulary in a small but complicated way, Nerdle takes this and gives it an arithmetic spin (in fact, between those two, you can have a mini-episode of Countdown at home every day).
But playing with children can be a fantastic way to reinforce basic concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Of course, any games here are a fun diversion, but Nerdle can be an absolute game changer, especially in helping build mathematical confidence.
Redactle
Possibly the most challenging game on this list, Redacted gives you a random Wikipedia article, but to start with, you only have the connectives; everything else is redacted. This one is complex, even for adults, so it may not be suitable for younger children, but certainly, teenagers may enjoy this massive brain teaser. It also introduces new, unexpected concepts; as they slowly discover the article, they will find new and surprising facts.
Though I cannot provide enough warning, this cannot be easy.
Geography Games (Worldle, Globle)
Worldle and Globle ask you to identify random countries, one by giving you an interactive globe that shows you how close or far away you are and the other by giving you stats like distance and direction. While geography isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, for those who want to test their knowledge of the world (and land borders. They become essential), these are a perfect way to engage the brain.
Also, while playing, I learned about five new countries I’d never heard of or realized where they are, which says the world is much larger than I thought; I really should have paid more attention to Geography or both.
Heardle
Heardle’s premise is you hear a second of a song; you try to guess what it is. If you’re wrong, you then hear two seconds of the song, and so on, up to 16 seconds. The songs they use aren’t always, or often, very recent so this one might be an education in music made years before they were born. However, it’s still an excellent way to introduce music theory to kids by showing a song introduction is crafted. Beyond that, you could find their new favorite song one second at a time.
Film Games (Framed, Hollywoodle, Actorle, Box Office Game)
There’s an excellent range of options for the next generation of budding cinephiles. For example, with Framed, you have to try and guess films from just six frames of it; with Hollywoodle you have to try and connect two actors in a maximum of six degrees of separation, Actorle asks you to guess an actor based on their top films, but you’re only given the number of letters, Genre and year of release.
But the piece de resistánce here is perhaps the Box Office Game wherein you try and guess films based on weekend box office data (and other facts if you’re willing to ‘buy’ them with in-game points). Admittedly, it’s an intense niche game at times (and very focused on the American film release cycle). Still, like many experiences, the dopamine rush is something to experience when you get a high score.
Like many games, the reward is not necessarily in achieving something you can tell everyone about but in discovering you can do it. And that can be a joy you share with your children every morning.
