I stayed up late last night making flash cards …really late. I made all the subtraction and addition flash cards I will need for a while. I used colorful index cards (something I suggest all you moms do, even if your kids aren’t homeschooled!) This morning I knew William would be so excited to know that there were some new, more challenging math facts in the stack.

We started our math class with practicing counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s as we normally do. And right as I was to grab our flash cards my little boy requested we played a game this morning.

Now, I know we can’t play games every day. However, he is 5 years old and he learns through play. Incorporating play throughout each subject is what makes this information stick.

So this momma scrambled and reached back into the very depths of my freshly coffeed brain. I grabbed a deck of cards (which are very very useful when it comes to math class) and sorted out all the cards.

I kept all of the 2’s-8’s and put the rest back in the box.

Shuffled up the cards and placed them face down like the game memory. This is memory…with a twist.

I gave William a pile of coins (always have manipulatives on hand during math class…anything he can count. We mostly use coins and buttons.) I gave him ten coins.

I gave him ten coins because instead of matching pairs for this memory game he will be matching cards that equal ten.

He flipped the first card. It was a 3. So he went to his pile of coins and took out three and counted how many more he had left. 7 were left so now he knew he was looking for a 7 to make the match.

By the end of the game he didn’t even need to use his coins anymore. He immediately knew that if he flipped a 3 he needed 7 more to make 10. Same goes for all the other math facts adding up to 10.

I was shocked by how effective this game was. And it was so much fun.

Try it for yourself! Let me know how you liked it. Got more math fact games? Share them with me! Will and I are pretty competitive and like a good game.

This post has been shared at Thank Goodness It’s Monday at Nourishing Joy, Hip Homeschool Hop, and Raising Homemakers