Many people are familiar with the card game "War," where two people split two decks of cards in half. The players then flip over those cards against each other. The person with the highest card wins the other card. The game continues until one player is out of cards. A version of the game can be played between parents and children at home. Except, instead of the highest card winning, the person who calls out the multiplication answer of the two cards first, is the winner. For instance, if you draw a six and your son draws a seven, the first person to say 42 wins both cards. Remind your son or daughter that aces are worth one and jacks, queens and kings are worth 10.
This game is played with one die and a deck of cards. There is a caller and two players, for three people total. The caller rolls the die or simultaneously flips over two cards. The caller then speaks the multiplication sentence aloud. For instance, if the caller rolled a five and a three, he would say, "Five times three." The first person to say 15 would be correct. However, if each player is stuck, then they must draw both circles and stars on their paper. They should draw the number of circles called for the first number, and then place the number of stars which correspond to the second number in those circles. Using our example, the children would draw five circles with three stars each inside. After counting those up, they would arrive at an answer of 15.
If your children are interested in sports, you can turn almost any event into a chance to learn division facts. For instance, if your son or daughter is a baseball fan, then they can practice how to calculate things such as winning percentage and batting average by doing a simple amount of division. Take your son's favorite player. If he had 20 "at-bats" over the course of the week and got six hits, then explain to your son that he had six positive results out of a possible 20 total results. Help your son write out the equation of 6/20 = .300. Encourage your child to extrapolate this lesson to other players and other sports. They can also use a calculator to check their work against the decimals when they are finished.
You can teach your children about basic division by cutting up a piece of fruit. For instance, take an apple and cut it into six slices. Then give your child three slices and ask what percentage of the apple she has in her possession. Explain that she has three parts out of six total parts. You can help her write out the equation of 3/6 = .50 or half of the apple. Continue practicing different division facts by cutting up the pieces of fruit until she gets the basic concept.