Teaching Homeschool Math With A Deck of Cards

I had found many Math games that were centered around a deck of cards.  However none of them were exactly what I wanted, so I kind of made up my own.  We started real simple, and am adding harder problems every week.  We only do Math, during the Summer, two or three times a week and I have already seen so much progress in my 10 yr old.

All you need is a deck of cards, a pencil, and a notebook or other paper.  I use the notebook only because it is easier to keep track of progress with it all neatly in one book. 

Shuffle the cards.  Have the child write their name and date on the paper. 
This is what we started with.  Number 1-10 on the paper.  Have the child draw two cards.  Then tell the child they have to add the two numbers, subtract the two numbers, then multiply them.  If your child is ready to divide add that in too.

Now we have moved up to 2 digit addition, subtraction, and for multiplication she gets to pick the two numbers she wants to multiply for half the problems, and pick for the second half.  I hope to have her moved up to two digit multiplication by the end of August, but I am trying not to push. 

Starting next week she will be doing 3 digit addition, and subtraction the same for multiplication as stated above.  You have to shuffle the cards a lot as you move into larger numbers, lol

After those ten problems are done, we do place value to the millions.  She starts with two cards, then draws from the pile to add to the number.  We do not use face cards for this one.  She has to correctly tell me the number, then write it in numerical form correctly on her paper.  She does this until the number has reached the millions place value.  I hope to start place value in the other direction, ie beside the decimal point soon.

She actually likes this way of learning Math, and is retaining it well.  On the days we are not doing the card games, she is doing Saxon 54, which is a little slower going because it is a text book.  Try it see if it works with your kiddos.  We get it all done within an hour which is perfect for any class.  When she does the Saxon 54 she does half the problems, we review them and she fixes the mistakes right then and there.  Then she does the other half and we do the same thing. 

Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills Grade 6

I love these books. I usually buy one each year, up to say 8th grade, then I move away from them. These are not meant to be stand alone curriculum, but a fun way to refresh or fill busy work in a day. They are fun and educational. This year I had one given to me, by a homeschooler who put her kids in public school. Even though it is a grade ahead of where my daughter will be this year, I want her to be challenged. So, I will use it.

DJ's curriculum is all planned out. That just leaves me to finish up Caitlin's and get our calendar together. My FIL is coming to visit the second week of Sept, so our new school year will be delayed slightly by a week. That broke the kid's hearts.

We continue with our Geography State Capital game, and the kids are starting to remember a lot of them. Plus the Math money game, I posted in the previous post, is working wonders for Caitlin. I did have to add some regular coins to the jar, just to be sure she actually knew the coins not just the decimal amounts written on the bottle tops. I could not be more pleased with the results.

She is also playing a Math card game, made by myself, that I will share as soon as I remember to take some pictures. She is doing addition, subtraction, multiplication and place value to millions with the cards. One more game, the noun, verb, adjective and adverb game. This is easy to do. I ask her to tell me the definition for each thing. After that I tell her to write three nouns on her paper, three verbs, three adjectives that would describe her nouns, and three adverbs to describe her verbs. Then she has to write a sentence with a noun, adjective, verb and adverb from her choices using proper spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. So far it is working amazingly well. I hope to add conjunctions and homophones before the end of Summer.

We are currently only doing school two days a week, over the Summer.