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We are fans of card games and board games, and anything that can add a bit of learning into the mix is going to be a winner.
When the children were younger I would use lots of games to help reinforce topics we had been learning or to add a little challenge in, or simply to gauge how they were able to apply knowledge we had been learning. I always found that learning how they were applying their knowledge, in particular, was a great way to understand just what had stuck, and what we needed to do a little more work on.
I’ve never made any secrets of the fact that our Home Education has been relatively formal. We have always followed a maths curriculum and structured the children’s learning around projects. But I have always used games to supplement learning and to impart learning in a fun and hands on way. Doing this has always helped my children embed knowledge.
Games, of course, are lots of fun and I have many happy memories of playing hours of board games with Em when she would wake super early on a weekend.
I was recently asked to take a look at a game called Calcul-me which is a maths based game and below are my thoughts on this quick and easy game.
What is Calcul-Me?
Calcul-me is a fast paced card game that requires players to perform quick calculations to win a hand. The winner is the player holding all the cards at the end of the game and there can be 2-6 players in the game. The more players, the more complex the game becomes.
How do you play Calcul-Me
The beauty of this game is that you can make your own rules, which is perfect for practicing certain number skills. There is a suggested game play included, but the real beauty of this game is that you can use it for practicing just the four main operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division or you can play with the included die to let that choose your calculation.
The dynamic of the game will also change depending on how many are playing. With two players the sums are relatively easy, but the more players you add the more complex they become and more numbers get added into the sums.
If playing the suggested rules, players throw the die to determine the sum that should take place. Players then turn over their card and use those numbers to perform the sum. First to shout the answer wins the cards. This continues until all cards are held by one player.
What I really like about this game, is that the cards can be used to focus on one operation. When we were learning number bonds when the children were much smaller this would have been a great game to play to get them calculating and recognising the patterns quickly. H and I have played a game using just multiplication, which of course becomes more complex when there are more players.
The cards themselves are really good quality (think Uno style cards) and the graphics are clear and bright, with slightly different styles to the 6 and 9 and differing background colours to help differentiate them. The bespoke die is cool and add some jeopardy into the game with the ‘switch hands’ face.
I was sent a PR sample, so that box isn’t terribly sturdy so I will replace this at some point with a zipped pouch like I have used for other card games. This isn’t really a complaint; I have yet to find a card game where the supplied packaging stands up to regular use!
I really like the way that this game can be adapted to your own home education. We have played rounds focussing on one particular operation that we have chosen, throwing the die to chose at each turn or waiting for Nova to knock the die to change the operation we are using!
Calcul-Me is a great addition to our game set at home and a brilliant way to introduce a simple maths game to your home education routines.
