Games that add up
Number songs and number rhymes also help young children learning to manipulate numbers. A six-year-old probably already knows half a dozen rhymes like One, Two, Buckle My Shoe and This Old Man that teach counting forward and backward.
Other games offer practice in the skills of adding and subtracting. Think of a Number is a good game to play in the car, in the grocery store lineup, or while waiting in the doctor's office. Say "I'm thinking of a number that is 4 more than 5. Do you know what it is?" Getting the right answer gives your child a chance to think up the next question for you.
Simple question-and-answer games like I Spy or Twenty Questions are time-tested games for helping children develop problem solving skills. Number cubes and dominoes help them practise counting as they throw a pair of dice, add up the dot patterns, and move their piece around the board in a game of chance. Any game in which a score must be kept provides practice with mental addition.
Card games offer another fun way to play with number recognition and memory. Use simple card games to introduce younger children to the 52 cards in a deck, to the four suits of cards, to the values assigned to the face cards, and to the number cards. You might begin by playing Snap! Remove from a deck of cards the 10s, jacks, queens, and kings. Shuffle the remaining 36 cards and deal them out. Each player turns over one card, either in turn or at the same time. If the numbers on the two cards turned over add up to 10, the first player to shout "Snap!" wins those two cards. Play the game through until all the cards are won and lost. When children are older and more familiar with mathematical operations and with card values, they may be ready to play cribbage with Grandpa.
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