I think that math is one of those subjects that evokes one of two strong feelings, at least that has been the case in my limited experience. Either a person loves numbers, orders, operations, and all things logical, or they tell tales of frustration, fear, and have a general aversion to one or more of the former. Speaking for myself, math wasn't my strongest subject. I had some teachers who were patient, enthusiastic, and inspiring, and in those classes, I did fairly well. On the flip side, I had teachers that were the polar opposite, one who actually called me a loser for struggling to understand certain sections of algebra.

When we decided to homeschool, I decided to approach math with a positive attitude, patience, and encouragement. I've tried to always explain the benefits of the subject, and the ways that it increases our mental capacity. My daughters are now in junior high and high school, and while it is doubtful that math will ever be a favorite subject, we've managed to get through most lessons with good humor. Of course, it always helps to include various games and activities in your lessons to keep the studies interesting at least. I jumped at the chance to review the card game, Fahrenheit, for just that reason.

If you've been paying attention, you can guess that this is, surprise, a math game. The name of it, Fahrenheit, should also help you figure out that this is also a weather game. Now, what is the game all about? Players ages seven years old and up play in groups of two or six. Playing cards have weather values ranging from thirty-two degrees below zero, to thirty-two degrees above zero.

There are four reference cards in the deck, called Thermometer cards, so you'll separate those from the deck. Each player gets five cards, which are placed face down, but each player is allowed to look at their own cards. The remaining cards are placed in the middle, face down. This is the "draw" pile, and the top card is placed next to it, face up. Red cards represent hot, or rising temperatures, and blue cards represent cold, or falling temperatures.

Each player looks at the card facing up on the draw pile and sees if they have a card to play. For example, if the card in the middle is a positive eighteen, the cards that may be played need to be larger in value than positive eighteen, or a wild card can be used. The round is over when one person has no cards remaining. When all the rounds that players have decided to play are completed, total up every players' score. The winner is the player with a score closest to zero.

I wasn't sure how this game would go over with my twelve and fourteen-year-olds. It might be a game, but there is still math involved so who knew what the response would be? As I guessed, my twelve-year-old was initially the more enthusiastic of the two and jumped right in with gusto. My fourteen-year-old was slower to warm up (no pun intended), but the lure of the game was stronger than her reservations. Figuring out integers had its moments of trickiness in our algebra lessons, so I was happy for the practice that Fahrenheit provides. After figuring out the rules, and the meanings of the various cards, we found this to be a fun game. My youngest said that it reminds her of a cross between a few popular card and domino games that our family enjoys. Happy faces and happy attitudes upon completion of a few rounds have me giving Fahrenheit a confident two thumbs up.

-Product review by Laurie Gauger, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, August, 2018