A friend asked me on Facebook for ideas to help her five year old daughter get more interested in math and develop number sense. I typed up this response and thought I’d share it here in case anyone with younger kids is interested.
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Games with numbers are great. We used to play war with just the cards ace through ten. I loved it because they could count the objects on the cards. Then you can modify that game when they’re ready for more advanced games. Like you could play two cards at a time and then the sum of the two cards is your hand. This gets them to add on each hand (I always had my kids “help” me add my hand as well. Then you count up the cards to see who wins. You can also do the same approach (two cards at time) but make it subtraction.
We played a silly game called “dice chips” which was named that because we use dice and poker chips. We did different variations, but the simplest was you each start with like 30 chips. You each roll a die and whatever you roll, that’s how many chips you put in the middle. Whoever runs out of chips first, wins the round. You can then move onto rolling two dice at once and doing the same thing. Or, you each roll two dice and who ever wins gets to put the difference in the middle (eg you roll a 9 and she rolls a 3 you get to put 6 chips in). It was a simple hame but my kids really did/do enjoy it.
If your daughter is a sore loser, like my son, you have one of her stuffed animals play both you. That way you and her are on a “team”. You kind of rig the game so you win most of the time but if you do lose you both lost together and you can try to “beat that dinosaur next time.” Or whatever stuffed animal you’re using.
I think the quick pace and rolling dice and the bit of competition kept my kids engaged. And I liked that cards, dice, and poker chips (or especially plastic counters) are cheap.
If I think of other things we did I’ll send them your way. At her age, I think, it’s just getting the reps in a fun way. Hope that helps!
Oh, play money is great too. Start just ones and fives and bring in other bills as she seems ready.
(Those ideas are regarding number sense. I’ll share some games for logical and stragteic thinking in another comment.)
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