I have always been a terrible speller it was always my least favorite part of school because it was a matter more about rote memorization and nothing to do with logic. I find the instant feed back loop from modern spell checkers, the ones that underline mistakes once I complete a word, help me to learn the correct spelling.

My problem is even now that my spelling is better I still have no confidence in my ability to spell when I don't have that safety net.

Forgoing game play and resorting to strictly to trivia is an easy way to create a game fast and expand it easily but in my opinion it doesn't keep you coming back. When I was a kid I practically wore out the pocket atlas that came with Carmen Sandiego not only was I learning about geography I was playing a fun game. Even after I had seen all of the different questions I continued to play because it was fun and therefore continued to reinforce what I learned.

The length of the game should be short but engaging because you don't want it to be a tedious experience. If it is a short but intense experience you can always play a second round but if it takes too long or it becomes boring then the game will be abandoned and the point of it is lost. I my opinion is that 5 to 10 minute rounds of game play are best. It is short enough that a teacher might be able to sneak it in at the end of a class or depending on the platform a child can play quickly on a mobile device.

Everyone always talks about LEGO but I had Construx. In my opinion it was a far superior toy. It had all these crazy pulleys and gears so you could create dynamic moving objects. I guess it was the 80's equivalent of a Erector set. I would build these big military looking machines and then introduce battle damage and put it back together. Oh course I always seemed to have one extra part after putting it back together