http://store.rightstartmath.com/math-card-games-kit

RightStart Mathematics is an award-winning hands-on math curriculum created by Dr. Joan A. Cotter. Dr. Cotter holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, an AMI Montessori diploma for ages 3-6, a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction, and a Ph.D. in mathematics education. RightStart Mathematics serves the homeschool community, elementary and middle school classrooms, as well as those who tutor students in mathematics.

RightStart has created a Math Card Games Kit consisting of over three hundred games that makes math fun while teaching numbers, addition, subtraction, telling time, money, multiplication, division, and fractions. The Math Card Games Kit can be used with any math curriculum as well as anyone who is interested in playing the games. You do not have to be a math expert to teach the math games!

What is included in the Math Card Games Kit:

• Math Card Games Manual 5^th Edition
• Math Card Games Instructional DVD Volume 1
• Al Abacus
• Two Laminated Fraction Charts
• Basic Number Card Deck
• Multiplication Card Deck
• Fraction Card Deck
• Money Card Deck
• Clock Card Deck
• Skip Counting Envelopes
• Corner Cards

The Math Card Games Manual 5^th Edition is a one hundred ninety-two spiral-bound notebook. Divided into eight chapters, children will learn numbers, addition, telling time, multiplication, money, subtraction, division, and fractions. The games build upon each other in the chapter and progressively become more difficult further on in the chapter. You do not have to finish one chapter to begin another. In the back of the book is an appendix with blackline masters to print and a DVD with video demonstrations of fourteen games from the game manual.

Every game has information included such as learning objectives, the number of players required (most were two to four player), manipulatives needed, objectives of the game, game directions, any variations of game play, and any other information pertinent to the game.

There are forty-six number-sense games, seventy-one addition games, thirty clock games, thirty-seven multiplication games, nineteen money games, thirty-seven subtraction games, eighteen division games, and fifty-one fractions games. The Al Abacus is used in many of the games, as well as students will play variations of some of the most popular children’s card games such as Old Maid, War, Memory, and Bingo. Even if the children are not familiar with the game, the games are not difficult to learn.

Our thoughts . . .

My kids enjoy playing games, and we have been having fun while they have been reinforcing what they have been learning in math as well as learning new math facts.

The favorite game for the oldest girls (all elementary school age) was Tens and Ones Bingo. The girls liked racing each other to see whose Bingo board filled up the fastest! We have also been spending a lot of time in the Clocks chapter and reviewing telling time on an analog clock. They enjoy the multiple memory games in the clock chapter.

Train Buff and I spent our time together working in Number Sense. He is now starting kindergarten and is still learning his numbers. The games in Number Sense have made it fun for him. He enjoyed Bead Card Memory and practice counting on the Al Abacus.

I think the game manual is very user friendly. It is very easy to set up the game and explain the directions to the kids. They are able to quickly understand what to do.

One thing that made this momma very happy was that all the cards but the smallest set come laminated! I prefer to laminate certain cards for extra durability and was glad that it was already done for me!

There hasn’t been a game that we haven’t liked. The kids keep asking if we can play a game from the book and have fun choosing which one they want to play next. If you are looking for math games to complement your mathematics curriculum, I recommend checking out the Math Card Games Kit by RightStart Mathematics.

-Product review by Jennifer Bowen, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, September 2017