With sunny weather and a plethora of exciting outdoor activities, it can be challenging to get your child thinking about math during the summer. Playing card games on a rainy day can be a great way to incorporate math learning into your busy summer schedule. Here are a few great card games to encourage your child to keep their math skills sharp this summer:

Compliments of Ten Memory - You can take the all the cards from 1-9 in a deck of cards, deal them face down, and play memory. Except, instead of looking for pairs of cards that are the same number, you must find pairs of cards that add up to ten.

Multiplication War - You can create many variations on the classic card game, "War", to practice your multiplication facts. You can pick a number that your child needs to practice and have them recite the multiplication facts associated with each card that is flipped (e.g. Lets say you choose to work on 6s facts. When a 3 and a 5 are flipped, your child will determine 3x6=18 and 5x6=30 and then identify the higher product). Whoever has the card that yields the higher product wins the round. You can also modify the deck of cards and only play with facts that your child has learned (e.g. play with only Aces, 2s, 5s, 10s, and 3s) and race each round to multiply the two numbers together. Instead of racing, you can also each flip two cards and multiply those together. Whoever has the pair that yields the higher product wins the round.

Addition/Subtraction War - each player flips two cards and must add or subtract them together (depending on which operation you choose to work on). The player whose pair of cards yields the higher sum or difference wins.

Multiplication Heads Up - This game requires three people. Two people draw a card and place it on their forehead without looking at it. A third person announces the product of the two cards, and the two must race to call out the card on their forehead. You can do this with addition as well! Once again, you can modify the deck of cards to work with numbers that are at the appropriate level for your child.

Multiplication Go Fish - "Go Fish" can be easily modified for practicing multiplication facts. Simply pick a number that you want to practice, and then, instead of asking for the card in your hand you must ask for the product of the card multiplied by the number you have decided to work on. For example, if you choose to work on 4s, if a player has a 5 in their hand, they will ask their opponent if they have any 20s (5x4=20).