Family Math Fun!

Card Games

Card Games for Smart Kids and Deal Me In! The Use of Playing Cards in Learning and Teaching, both by Margie Golick, include many card games that children love to play.

Here are some things your child will do that will show he is learning math:

puts small things inside big things, and tries to put big things into small things.
guesses whether something will fit in a space.
piles things up until the tower falls down.
asks and understands “when?”

Kids don’t need fancy toys to discover math—they need time to play and notice and try things out. You can help by letting them play.

Activity 27

Memory Game

This is a game that most kids are better at than most adults, so it is a good game for parents to play with their kids.

Play with cards

Deck

Use the whole deck. If you like, you can use 2 jokers. Lay the cards out in a pattern (6 rows of 9 if you are using the jokers; 4 rows of 13 if you are not using the jokers.) For younger children, don’t use the face cards or the jokers. Just use the ace to 10 in all suits.

Play

The youngest player starts. She picks a card and turns it face up. Then she picks another card and turns it face up. If the cards match, she picks them both up and keeps them beside her. Then she takes another turn. She keeps on as long as she finds a match each time she turns up 2 cards. When she does not pick a matching card, she turns them both face down again, in the same place. The other player takes a turn.

Continue to play until all the pairs have been found. The player with the most pairs
wins the game. Some kids don’t care about winning, and other kids care.