Hi there friends.

Have you been having a nice evening? I have been having fun. After watching "American Idol," my wife and I spent some time playing Dance Dance Revolution. That was fun.

By the way, what did you think about tonight's American Idol? I was pretty sure that Diana and Fantasia were going to win. I am surprised that Matthew got third place. (I voted for Diana.)

Anyway as I said in my headline, I have some experience of playing Scrabble with kids. You see, I work as an elementary school ESL teacher. My job is to help non-native English speakers improve their English. Occasionally, the kids are able to talk me into a game of Scrabble.

I think that Scrabble is a really good game for learning how words go together and stuff like that. It is better than playing "Slap Jack" in class. The tough thing for me (if I am playing with the kids) is to lay down enough longer words for the kids to play off of.

The kids are really good at laying down two- , three- (and occasionally four-) letter words. In a four-player game where three of the players are consistently placing short words, spaces to lay good words evaporate quickly. Of course by the time the turn comes to me, I have to figure out how to cram as large a word as possible into whatever space the kids give me. That's tough.

The Scrabble player in me sometimes screams in agony too. I dangle places for words that can touch the 3x score box. I leave words open that are just BEGGING for a 'd' or an 's.' I am playing so that my opponents can make words, rather than the other way around. I hope that I will be able to repress these tendencies the next time I find myself in a real game...