Have you done your Wordle?

Disclaimer: This is NOT an advertisement for Wordle nor am I paid in any way to promote the game 😊

If by now you have not caught on the Wordle craze (or its multiple spin offs including CHINESE WORDLE), you can read all about it here 👇

https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/wordle-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-viral-word-game/

In a nutshell, you have 6 tries to guess a 5 letter word. Similarly to Mastermind, you will be told 3 outcomes after each try.

Black = wrong letter

Yellow = correct letter but wrong placing

Green = correct letter, correct placing

So once you achieve 5 green tiles, it’ll mean you have correctly guessed the word.

A simple game which caught on because it made sharing the results (without revealing the answer) easy. Hence it resulted in a flurry of results sharing on social media, and also a good conversation starter among friends.

I have group of friends in a chat group who will greet each other in the morning by sharing the results. My kids will guess the word after dinner on an attempt to beat the father. “Papa u do Wordle already? How many tries? 5? Ha! I did it in 4!” 🙄

You should try it. Healthy educational fun with a tinge of rivalry… daily.

Communication with our kids (especially when they reach teenagehood) is sometimes similar to playing Wordle. We ask them how’s their day and all we get is a blank look or at most a “OK lor”. Even when we notice something is amiss, we just can’t seem to get an answer from them other than “nothing wrong”.

That’s like getting 5 BLACK TILES.

And just like playing Wordle, we continue to try. With each yellow or green tile, we make better guesses and become better at communicating with our kids.

Before we finally hit 5 GREEN TILES. Yay!

A few things I learn

1. We may get 5 green tiles on our first try. Yay! But no one I know has achieved consecutive 5 green tiles, unless you are having a super lucky streak, or play cheat 🙊 Every day you get a new word, every day you get a new challenge in trying to understand how to better communicate with your kids. Sometimes they open up at the first question asked. Most of the time it takes much longer.
   

2. You do not need to complete the challenge in one single setting. If you get mindblocked or stuck, take a break and continue with your daily affairs. But attempt the challenge again when your mind is fresher. You do not need to get all the answers from your child in one single HTHT. If your child is not ready, it’s ok to try again later. If you cant catch the cues, it’s ok to try again later. Attempting to guess the word haphazardly without thinking through the clues will likely result in a failure (not guessing the word after 6 attempts).
   

3. Finally, THANKFULLY unlike Wordle, we have more than 6 attempts to figure out what our kids are trying to communicate with us. If only we keep trying and be sensitive to the ’clues’ they give us. A change in mood. Not sleeping well. Keeping to themselves all of a sudden. Drop in appetite, etc.
   

Was talking to a friend this morning that kids nowadays (again especially teens) face so many crossroads (decision making moments). Their life is going through changes. Their body is going through changes. Their emotions are going through changes (all the time!). Let us not be put off by their initial bo-chup face and “don’t bother me” attitude. Reach out to them. Take steps to solve this Wordle, with them.

You should try it.

“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18