Five Reasons Your Children Should Play Cards

Looking for the next fun activity for your kids this summer? Shuffle up a deck of cards!

One of the oldest, most traditional pastime activities, card games can bring your children tremendous benefits through developing basic life skills. It’s a great way to spend family time together and also learn more about each other. Try a competitive round of Crazy Eights to find out!

Playing cards is not only a great way to pass time on a hot summer afternoon camping or at the cabin, but card games are full of hidden learning opportunities for kids. Even very simple games such as Old Maid or Snap can teach your children basic developmental and sociological skills, from memorizing to thinking strategy.

Handle your set

Like building blocks and drawing with crayons, card games will teach your children fine motor skills. Holding a hand of cards will work their smaller hand and finger muscles. And dealing cards and sorting them requires kids to use their thumb, index and middle finger. Meanwhile, for the older kids, learning to shuffle cards develops bilateral coordination of hands and control across the palms. Start early. Give your kids your old decks and have them deal, mix, sort and hold them. Or build with them!

Ace your math

Many games make math fun and attractive and card games are certainly one of them. Early games like Go Fish provide children opportunities to become familiar with numbers and practice math logic. Kids can easily pick up number patterns by matching cards and counting them in pairs. Try out minimally challenging games for children who are just starting out. War, Go Fish, and Snap are favourites with youngsters. Older kids will enjoy Whist, Hearts, and Crib as well as Rummy and Crazy 8s.

Remember me

A card game requires that players concentrate and remember moves in order to play, and play well. Flipping cards to match two cards of the same color or shape for example can be an excellent way for kids to build recognition and memorization skills. Remembering the rules, the order of play (always to the left), even whose turn it is, all require focus and concentration.

Get Socially skillful

Card games require observation and conversations. Throughout the game, your kid has the chance to interact with the players, whether it’s family or friends, and also understand different emotions. Introducing kids to card games early on will help them with their social interactions, and can help shy children feel more confident. This is also a window for parents to teach their kids on how to handle winning and losing. For example, congratulate the winner on winning the game while graciously accepting defeat yourself. And be sure to alway focus on skill and practice as ways to get better at any game. No one is born a winner – it takes work!

And strategy!

Card games are fun, but they can also be competitive. Thinking through the next move while observing everyone’s expressions and reactions in a group leads to good strategic thinking for children. Again, be sure to encourage practice, focus, and concentration as a way to get better at a game. Anyone can do it!

The next afternoon you decide to play a round of Rummy, include your children in the entertainment and see them get smarter!

Hands Too Small?

My little girl loved to use card holders. We actually played Pokemon the trading card game and she’d put her cards carefully into her card holder. There’s something about ‘gear’ that intrigues young ones.

Seven No Trump (sevennotrump.com) has a great collection of card holders including the all new CardCady, which works great for small hands