This activity helps children to identify commonalities between math concepts. Consider making flash cards with even and odd numbers. Set the flash cards up in classic Concentration style and have the child match even numbers together and odd numbers together. A variation that teaches a higher-level concept is to use math flash cards to teach squares. Make one set of flash cards with integer values and another set with the result of squaring each of the integers. Have the child match the integer to the correct squaring result.
The competitive challenge of this flash card game helps children want to learn important math concepts to perform better than their peers. Dividing the children into two teams. Ask the teams to form two lines. Show the first two in line a math equation flash card. The first child to give the correct answer goes to the back of his team's line and the team gets a point. The other team member must remain in place until he gets a correct first answer. For slower students, allow other team members behind him to whisper the answer to him. This will help him retain the information and not feel left out.
Learners tend to learn from flash cards only one way. For example, when learning definitions, students hear the definition and recall the vocabulary word, but not the other way around. Get the most out of flash cards by making them work both ways. Try one game in which your child gives you an example of an "exponential expression" or a "radical expression," then switch it around so that the child sees an example of each and tries to identify what kind of expression she is seeing.
This concept can be applied to math concepts throughout your child's educational career. You can use flash cards in two ways. First, you can show the child different cards to form the equation and have him solve it. Once he is familiar with the equations, place the cards in piles. Show him a flash card with the number of a result and have him to pick out the number and mathematical symbol cards needed to get the result. For example, if you showed a flash card with 7, he might pick out a 10, a minus sign and a 3 to get that result.