DIY Cards

Let your child make and design their own multiplication cards. Like i always reiterate almost like a broken recorder – Children learn best when they work with their hands, “What goes through the hands… goes to the mind.”~Maria Montessori. This will also enable your child to practice his or multiplication tables, while being creative.

What i did here with my girls is to use our modest collection of paper punchers to create their own designs. We use one colour to code the tables we’re working with, like this yellow one is for learning the 3 Timestables and mebbe blue for 4 Timestables… (etc). Colour coding will also make it easier for us to sort and keep our materials. Make 24 cards of each colour, in a size you most prefer to work with. First 12 cards being the concrete part with all the punched out shapes & another 12 for the tables itself ie. 3X1=3 and so on till 12.

You can use these DIY cards for reciting the tables, playing snap or if you’re into right-brain training, you can even decide to do the 1-sec flashing too. Wink DIY with thicker colour/construction paper if you’re not going to laminate them like mine. I thought since it’s the girls’ own hard work into these self-made cards, i wud appreciate and preserve their work by laminating them.. If you do not have a laminating machine, you can get those laminating sheets with self adhesives to protect your cards too.

Times Tables Snap

Times Tables Snap are  from the good & creative people @ The Green Board Game Company. They have great card games to promote fun learning. I bought mine from Popular around $13.80 but it should also be available at Growing Fun stores.

You can use these cards to play the usual snap with all the cards if your child has mastered all the multiplication tables from 1 to 12. If not however, do not fret. Cards are just the aides, we the humans can choose to expand the aides in ways beneficial for our children to work with. As i have 2 girls of different age range and math abilities, to accommodate a game in order for both of them to play, this is what i did. I section the cards into only all the 2 Times Tables… cos so far that is the only one she can manage fast enough to snap. Separate the questions and the answers aside. Oops. Sorry, just noticed one question card was pictured together with the answers. Yikes. Ignore that okie.

Now, all question cards are to be faced down. Answer cards to distribute evenly amongst players. In our case, there are 2 players. Answer cards held by players also face down. I flip open the question cards on the mat one question at a time.

For the 1st question i flipped here ie. 2X12….. we wait for DD2 to come up with the answer and then we begin to take turns to flip the answer cards, until we reach the answer 24…. and winner for the question is the fastest person to snap at the point the card with the number or the word 24 is placed on the mat. I like the fact that this card also helps children to learn the words to the numbers in their answer cards. I never believe there is only one way to learn things, especially when it comes to our own kiddies. My own daughters are both poles apart in their characteristics, learning abilities, acquired taste in food, preferred games and TV programmes and heck they both look different from each other 2! So, i am always on the lookout for the good stuff when i’m out. I look for different tools, teaching aides and books to benefit 2 different children. Tho it can be time consuming, i enjoy the process and the experience of helping my girls learn better in their own special ways….. their own special learning abilities.

While DD2 is fast and her memory is excellent, jie-jie is the kind who takes time to process and digest stuff especially when it comes to Maths concepts but i did observe she is one for Music! She can hear a song a couple of times and voila! She suddenly can sing the whole song just like that! So, on the scout i was to look if there were songs that teaches Math concepts and boy, were there MANY! As with other stuff i get i try to find the chance to peek in (for books)….. a chance to test (for food)….. and a chance to view or listen when it comes to DVDs and audio CDs….. as much as possible. Though sometimes, I will cross into the paths of not-so-flexible retailers. Cannot help it lah. Can’t say i didn’t try..

Turkey Toast Game

With just cut out egg cartons as bases and a nice turkey cut-out or drawing. In this picture, it is being used to play with multiples of 2. You can always decide on the tables you want your child to learn for this activity. You may even consider making 2 sets – one for yourself. Whoever finishes tossing correct number of (anything you’re using, from marbles to pebbles or counting chips) objects into the egg cartons, wins the game. Your children won’t realise they’re learning as they’re busy playing with you, have fun!