For many children, math can be one of the trickier school subjects to really master. If you have a child that’s struggling to learn math, take advantage of the extra free time in summer to help him learn rounding with decimals in a fun way! This simple game is fast-paced and exciting whether you let your children compete against one another or just set a timer to see how quickly your little one can answer the questions!

Materials:

• 6–7 sheets of paper or 25 standard note cards
• Scissors
• 2 black markers

Directions:

1. Cut the paper into approximately 50 cards, or cut 25 standard note cards.
2. On each card, write dollar amounts up to $1000 in black marker. For example:
   • $26.18
   • $620.67
   • $12.80
3. Explain the process of rounding to the nearest dollar. Show your child how $26.18 rounds to $26.00. The “ones” place comes just before the decimal, circle it (the 8) and look at the number to its right – 1 – which is less than 5. Therefore, the 8 stays the same and the 1 gets knocked down to 0. Have your child practice rounding with a few cards.
4. Now start the game! Have your child challenge a sibling or friend. Both players sit next to each other. Lay a card in front of the players. The first player to correctly round the number to the nearest dollar wins the card. Set a timer and play for three minutes. The player with the most cards at the end wins the round.
5. For a one player version, challenge your child to see how many cards he can correctly round up and down in three minutes. Then let him try to beat his time.

For even more summer fun, reward the players with a cool treat for a job well done! Or take them out to choose their own summer prize and see if they can put their math skills to use and round up the total at the cash register. But of course, the most important reward of all will be math skills that they’ll use for a lifetime!