Accumulation

What You Need:

• Deck of playing cards
• Sheet of paper
• Pencil
• Calculator

What You Do:

1. Begin with addition to get the basic rhythm of the game. The starting score is "0". Face cards = 12, aces = 1.
2. Ask your child to shuffle the deck and draw one card.
3. Have him record whatever his card is plus 0 to create his first answer. For example, if he draws an 8, then 8 + 0 = 8. He would then add to the next card starting with 8.
4. Have him continue drawing cards, one by one, until he finds the sum of all of the cards in the deck. He can double check his work with a calculator as he goes along.
5. To move on to subtraction, he can start with 1,000 points. Multiplication begins with 1 point, and division starts with 100,000 points.
6. To make this super-challenging for your math whiz kid, call out the operation with each new card drawn and mix it up each time! Keep a calculator handy to double check answers.
7. Make it even more fun by using a timer to see how fast he can get through the entire deck of cards!