Financial Friday: Playing With A Deck of Cards

Using a deck of cards works with the logical-mathematical intelligence.

As I continue to clean out my kitchen drawers, I find more junk. This week brought me to the drawer underneath the microwave. It is full of paint swatches for when I imagined having a dining room. (The dining room is now a playroom). It is full of tons of other small items, including decks of cards. I think we get so many from my husband's golf outings' goody bags. (I'm pretty sure that's not what the golfers call them, but in simple terms, that is what they are). Most of the decks are still in the package, but one was not.

Za standing in front of the cards while we discussed what to play.

I pulled the cards out, knowing that numbers and colors were on the shiny cards. I figured the kids and I would figure something out with them, and we did.

The cards reminded Za of Memory.

First, Za just started playing with them, turning them over like when we play Memory, which gave me the idea to talk about similarities and differences.

Simple sorting.

We divided the cards by colors: black and red. This was simple, but great for my two-year old. She found quick success with this and was very proud of herself. 

Fixing the order of numbers.

Next I had the idea to lay the cards somewhat in numerical order, just leaving spots where cards needed to go. I put "2, 3, 6" and then we counted. When we came to the spot for "4" we found the four (and then the 5) and filled it in. Ty helped with this but Za still did as well. We played this way for a long time.

Messy triangle.

 As we started to wind down from playing, I turned the cards into shapes, which Za gleefully identified. (She really likes her shapes!)

It was a square.

The last shape turned into a racetrack for cars, which is how the kids played with them until we later picked them up.

Later, Ty started adding the numbers. He liked it because he could count the diamonds, hearts, or whatever and that is how he added. I suppose we could move onto subtraction as well.

I loved that this project addressed the logical-mathematical intelligence and that it was appropriate for Za's level. Later when Ty (who is four) wanted to play, I made the games more difficult. It was easy to adjust for their particular ages. Did I also mention how inexpensive this activity was?

So there has to be more ways to play with cards! Add them below please! What would you play with a deck of cards?