Color Recognition Search

Many may know this format (way of playing) as "Memory." We have called it "Search" since my children were little. The rules are simple. Deal out any number of paired cards, face-down. Players take turns selecting two cards in an attempt to find pairs which they collect.

Here Diana is the only player, while I watch and encourage her. We also name the colors as she turns over a color. Diana turns up a yellow card. She then looks for its match.

She finds the match. The two yellows make a pair which Diana collects...

...and sets aside.

After collecting all the pairs, Diana is ready to play again.

Diana played several games and it was interesting that she always turned up the upper left-hand corner card first every time. Here she finds a yellow.,

Having made the pair of yellows, she selects the new upper left-hand corner card. This time finding a blue card and looking for its match right below it. However, this must not have matched...

...as she later finds the match in another spot.

Finishing up that game, Diana is ready to play again and again and again.

Learning colors can be so much fun! She also loves the attention and time with Grandma.

Playing Search was a new format for Diana. As she learns this way of playing a little better, we will add more cards for her to match.

Name the Number - Numeral Recognition

Finding good activities to occupy the younger ones, while I work with their older brothers can sometimes be a challenge. So thinking of this simple game using the "big boys' " cards was a winner for me.

Letting Wesley, age 4, be the teacher, gave him a sense of being the older one, instead of always being the LITTLE brother. He looked the part as he was wearing a tie this day. He took his position very seriously and worked patiently with his young sister, Diana, 2.

Wesley flipped one card at a time asking Diana "What number is this?" She knows several of the numbers up to 12, but has a few she needs work on. He carefully traced numbers she didn't know or he held up fingers and had her count them as a way of figuring it out. I didn't give him this idea so I was so pleased to see that he thought of it.

While this is a very simple little activity, it was an important one for Wesley and Diana seemed to enjoy the time playing with her BIG brother.

Team Work - Working together to win!

The boys here are so competitive and hate to lose. So I had them working together. Here is what we did:

We used our deck of cards 1-12 (four of each). I appointed Charles, 6, the super hero in red, to be

the captain for the game. 

We were drilling addition. I shuffled the deck and then turned over two cards at a time. Charles would choose who would add the two numbers together. The only condition was that each child had to be the one giving the answer before a child got another turn.

If a 1 or 2 was one of the numbers, Charles appointed Wesley, 4, to be the one to give the response. If it was harder but Charles knew the answer right away, he would give the response. He counted on Douglas, 8, to give the answer for the team when he did not immediately know the answer.

This was the fun comraderie they showed all through the game!

Wesley, 4, was so excited that he was able to play along with the older brothers and be a real part of the team.

0 - 103 Cards for Math

This deck has 104 cards numbers 0 to 103. Here are a few things we did with these today.

Highest Card Take 

Wesley and Jacob are learning to read and understand the values of double digit numbers. 

The deck was shuffled and divided evenly. Each boy turns over one card and reads his number. Then they decide whose number is the largest. That boy collects both cards.

 Double Digit Addition

Charles is working on double and triple digit addition, so this is good practice for him. The hardest part is doing the work in his head and remembering the ones place while he carries and adds the tens place. A child could write his numbers on a piece of paper and do his work there, but I like them doing the work without paper.

To play the game we divide the deck. Each player turns up TWO cards and adds them. The player with the higher sum collects all four cards.

We usually only play with a very few cards. We play once through our cards. In this way the child has done 4 to 6 problems and that is often enough. I want the activity to stay fun and not seem like "work." 

For a SPEED version of this game each player would only turn up one card and both players would race to give the sum first and collect the cards. For this version, players should be sitting next to each other so the cards are upside right for both players.

SUBTRACTION could also be drilled for either of these games. For the first version, we like to play whoever has the lowest difference is the winner. 

Put Us in Order

Since Wesley and Jacob are working on reading and the value of double digit numbers, here is an activity for this. 

The child draws 3 cards and places them face-up on the table. I have them read the numbers.

They may need a little assistance with questions like: Which card is the lowest?

Wesley had a little trouble with this group of numbers after he had selected 29 as the lowest number. 

I tried helping him by asking, "Which card has the highest number?"

He picked out the 66, but then couldn't figure out what to do with the 26. He put it in the middle, but something still didn't seem right.

 All of a sudden he had an idea and did a quick switch!

Now it looked much better!