Dutch Blitz as a math lesson?! Yes–what a blast! This is part of the joys of homeschooling. There is room for creativity.
If you’re unfamiliar with Dutch Blitz, it’s a fast-moving card game where players make piles of cards in ascending order from 1-10. It also requires you to be alert, watching not only what’s in your own piles to play, but what to add to the general game area as well. In other words, it’s a fantastic brain workout too.
Jamayia knows her numbers and is very comfortable with their order. She had watched the adults play this game at a family dinner recently, so she had a simple understanding of what should happen. We went slow. I helped her out a wee bit and she actually won both rounds.
It was neat to watch her little hands and eyes and mind at work. Each time she’d flip over a card in her “wood pile”, she’s scan the “dutch piles” to see if there was a place for that card. If not, she’d flip again and again until she found a card. At the end, of the round, she would help sort out the cards and then she counted her own cards for scoring.
This girl loves math. I’m trying to show her that math is used regularly, as a part of everyday life. Playing games, cooking, telling time, and just about anything you can think of.
I’m aware that math won’t always be so enjoyable and that difficult concepts are looming in the future with algebra, trigonometry and the like. My hope is that she’ll always remember the fun and the usefulness of math, so that these pleasant memories carry her through the rougher times.