Word scrambles have long been a popular source of party games. In the mid 1960s young people in the Pi Mu Society, a group of musicians that was located outside of Philadelphia, frequently used word scrambles at their monthly get-togethers. At that time the host had to do his or her own word selection and word scrambling. Today any such children's scramble is easily planned with the aid of a computer.
Yet even more popular than the children's scramble has been the baby word scramble. A hostess who wants to use that game at a baby shower can obtain lots of suggested scrambled words just by going online. Most Websites provide both the scrambled words and the unscrambled words. They do not however always define the meaning of the words that they choose.
Yet a study of the suggested words for the coming games of baby word scramble shows that some underline the importance of a person or discovery important to the birthing process. For example one word list had a scrambled version of the word "Apgar test."
The ability to unscramble that word hinges largely on a familiarity with the woman known as Virginia Apgar.
Virginia Apgar knew a little something about computers, but she never lived to see the use her name in a game on the internet. She knew a great deal about babies but almost nothing about what's involved in a baby word scramble.
Still even today a woman who has just given birth to a son or daughter will note that the nurse/ midwife always examines the newborn and then calls-out a number. That number is the score on the Apgar test. In other words, the playing of the baby word scramble can sometimes be used to teach pregnant women about the procedures of the delivery room.
The scrambled words used in the baby word scramble could thus turn a baby shower into an important learning experience. There could for instance be a scrambled version of these words: "amniocentesis," "birth defect," "chorionic villi sampling," and "premature birth." These are the medical terms and tests that professionals use to help to guarantee the delivery of a healthy baby.
The new mother needs to know about bottles, breast feeding, diapers and Pedialite. Those terms could all be used in a challenging baby word scramble. But before the birth of a healthy baby can be assured the pregnant woman must first learn about chromosomes and the tests of the molecular biology lab. Future mothers can be introduced to those words through the baby word scramble.
Of course the baby word scramble used at a baby shower does not have to confine itself to only words relating to a child's first few months of life. It can also include words from Mother Goose rhymes. Such rhymes should soon take-up much of the free time of the future mother.
So if you are a hostess planning a baby shower you could do your guests a great service by having them play baby word scramble. This could provide them with an opportunity to learn about Virginia Apgar, the inventor of the Apgar score. The guests might even get a scrambled word like "etn" or "nte." Those would be scrambled versions of "ten," a perfect score on the Apgar test.