Homemade Math Games

Being one kid’s Suddenly Homeschooling Mom (SHM) is complicated. Wearing that hat for multiple kids adds other layers of complexity. Some of those layers are more like comfy blankets, in that it’s reassuring to know that they at least have each other if/when you need a break or a virtual happy hour with your friends. But when it comes to doing an activity together that you want to fit nicely in the “school time bucket,” hitting the mark for kids of different ages can be hard. Oh, and then there’s the need to keep your cooped-up angels from killing each other a la War of the Roses when they fall from the chandelier.

Games are great, but unless your kids are a different species from mine, games work best when everyone has a reasonable chance of winning. To level the math playing field for C (4th grade) & E (K), I made this deck of cards.

C’s handwriting is as illegible as my own, so I’ll explain that cards are drawn one at a time and it’s a race to solve the equation, with E focusing on the top (addition or subtraction) and C focusing on the bottom (multiplication or division). Whoever solves it first gets the card, and the person with the most cards at the end wins. We tried it out and realized that there needs to be a penalty if you get it wrong. E suggested that in that case you roll a die and give back that number of cards. In practice this was a really steep penalty and kept the game going a lot longer than I expected. Given that we have nowhere to go these days I consider this a plus!

The kids made their own variations, too. In C's version, they draw simultaneously from their own decks (E with addition/subtraction cards and C with multiplication/division cards) and try to lose cards by solving the problems first. 

E’s is a solitaire version with a timer, where you have to solve the problems on the cards within a certain time limit. For us, a meaty component of all three games was deciding the title and writing out the rules. 

When I tell people that I do research to develop and test media for learning, the conversation usually turns quickly to a discussion of digital games, apps, shows, etc. But I think of media a lot more broadly. It’s not just about going digital-- it’s about choosing the right materials for the purpose in mind. In this case index cards and our leftover wedding stationary* fit the bill.

*We got married in 2006, so props to the hubs for still having it.