When I was in 7th grade, someone gave me a “word-a-day” vocabulary building calendar. Nothing made me happier than showing off with words like “incongruous.” What would have made it more fun, however, would’ve been doing good while expanding my word use!

The UN World Food Program has come up with an ingenious game, Free Rice. You are presented with four or five definitions for a word and with each correct answer, 20 grains of rice are donated to feed the hungry around the world.

It didn’t take me long to work up to 1080 grains of rice and I had the option to set the game to remember my computer and add to the total. Some smart programmer has made the game toss out a few different levels of words to determine what level will challenge you, but not demoralize you. I noticed that when I missed two or three words in a row, the words got a little easier. A very kid-friendly way to play!

Try this as a family and end with a word that everyone can use in a sentence over the next 24 hours, or until you play your next round! Considering that 90 million people in over 80 countries survive on the World Food Program each day…this is a game you can feel really good about playing!

Gavin Hudson blogged about this back in October…green minds must play alike! How’s your vocabulary now, Gavin? I’m guessing it must be behemothic!

[This post was written by Lee Welles.]