Spelling Bee is that rare app that lives up to the hype. It's a clean, well-designed word puzzle that actually teaches vocabulary while being genuinely fun. The honeycomb layout is iconic, the progression system is satisfying, and the daily format creates a healthy routine.

The subscription cost is real ($6.99/month), but you're paying for quality: no manipulative mechanics, no ads in the paid version, just pure puzzle. The main 'risk' is that your kid (or you) might get a little obsessed—Reddit threads are full of people confessing they can't start their day without hitting Genius level. But as addictions go, expanding your vocabulary isn't the worst one.

It's not wildly imaginative—you're finding existing words, not creating new ones—but it does invite linguistic exploration and pattern recognition. Kids will encounter words they've never seen before and actually remember them because they had to work to find them.

Bottom line: If your kid enjoys word games and has the reading chops (probably 5th grade+), this is a solid daily brain exercise that beats doomscrolling any day of the week.