math game!

One of my kids LOVES math and the other purports not to like it at all.  I have been trying this year to make it as engaging as possible.  

One thing we are really working on is speed/knowing our math facts in an automatic way so that as we are doing more complicated equations, the basics feel very fluent.  

I am immensely grateful for the wonderful friends that I get to walk this journey of home educating with and one of those friends is Evelyn.  God orchestrated our meeting in the school office on the one day a week our kids attend a supplemental program.  On that blustery morning a friendship was kindled that I couldn't be more grateful for!  Once upon a time I jotted down a note from either a conversation or perhaps one of her instagram posts or stories to hide the answers to math problems around the room.  

I had recently gotten out my collection of numbers picked up at flea markets, etc. over the years and I would set out a number and they would build it with popsicle stick tally marks.  

I grabbed the numbers again and with their help we scattered them all around the room.  

I held up flashcards (again from my long collected stash of vintage stuff!  Using vintage flashcards just makes me happy!)  and they raced around to locate the answer and place it in their own piles.  

When we had used all of the numbers the kids wanted to work together on the subtraction problems.  They sorted all of the numerals into piles for quick grabbing.  They piled the answers (or equivalents when the numeral they needed wasn't available which added in even more math practice, matching equations to equations!) on the tray until they were out.  

Finally they once again used the popsicle sticks to build the answers to the addition and subtraction problems mixed with tally marks!  

There was much hilarity and I think everyone had a great time with math that day as well as building a lot of fluency!  This was all super simple - sometimes the simplest things are the most fun!  I hope you and your kids have a great time with this if you decide to try it.  

Kelly