Card games are a traditional way to enjoy quality time with family and friends. If your kids are struggling with maths, or you’re simply seeking a great way for children to have fun while boosting their brain power, card games can help you.
Quality playing cards can be a great investment. They’ll be handy for family fun, they’re ideal for a bit of “me time” solitaire, and your child could even become a magician.
We’ve rounded up some card games for children of different ages, from their early years, to primary, secondary and beyond.
Sort & Order
It can be tough keeping young children occupied and happy. Sort & Order is a great way for them to learn numbers, ordering, and sorting.
Give your child a few numbered cards to count and put in order. As their skills improve, expand the range of numbers. Let older kids treat jokers as zeros and aces as ones.
More advanced youngsters can sort by suit or make things more interesting by timing themselves.
Subtraction Battle
This is a great way for kids to exercise mental agility while building maths skills and having fun with siblings and friends.
Shuffle the deck and deal the cards face down to all players. The Aces represent 1, and the face cards represent 10.
Each player places two of their cards face up and subtracts them to find the difference (e.g., 6-2=4). The biggest number wins the round, taking all cards.
If two players have the same results, it’s time for Grand Battle! Each player places four cards face down, turning over two and adding their values. The highest sum wins.
If necessary, turn over the third and fourth cards to determine the victor.
Pyramid 10
This is a classic solitaire (single-player) card game, Pyramid 10 is an excellent way for older kids to enhance their mental maths.
Remove all Jokers, Kings and Queens from the deck. Shuffle the deck and build a six-row pyramid of cards face up. Start with one card in the top row, then two cards in the next row, continuing until you have six cards along the sixth (bottom) row. Place each successive row of cards so that they overlap the row above them. The remaining 19 cards constitute the Draw pile.
- Cards can only be played if they are fully exposed, so play starts from the bottom row.
- Cards can only be removed in sets of two and if they equal 10. (e.g., you can remove a 2 and an 8, but not a 3 and 2, or a 3, a 3 and a 6.)
- If no open cards can be removed, take a card from the top of the Draw pile. If it makes 10 with an open card, remove the pair. Otherwise, place the Draw card face up on the Discard pile.
- Continue until no more cards can be removed. The number of cards remaining in the pyramid is the score — the lower, the better!
Learning Maths Skills Can Be Fun!
We’ve only scratched the surface of the fun ways card games can boost kids’ maths abilities. What card games do you love? You might find them perfect for exercising number skills.
High-quality maths tutoring is another great way to boost math skills. Our tutors are always looking to find creative ways to help engage children and enhance their learning experience, especially in a tough subject such as math.
Are you looking to find some additional support in maths for your child? Play your cards right by contacting us today!
