Daisy, aka Five Minute Mum, explains how to play this simple and fantastic card game. Let’s take a look…
What did you do?
The Number Thief Game
This is a very simple game for number recognition that I used to play with the kids I taught at nursery years ago. We had a wall of velcro numbers but I’ve simplified it because funnily enough I don’t own either a laminator or a printer!
So all you need is a pack of cards. But you can jazz it up a bit if you think your child might be a bit reluctant. I stood the cards in Playdoh to spark Ewan’s initial interest. But my top tip would be to get a “character” to steal the letters. You could use a cuddly toy, a puppet, or put on a hat to take turns to be the thief – whatever your little one would like best.
The game is simple:
- Lay the cards out Ace-10
- Tell your child to close their eyes because the naughty *insert character name here* is going to steal a number.
- Take one card away.
- Let them look and tell you the missing number.
- If they struggle say “let’s count together” and ‘find’ it.
So once they’ve got the hang of it steal two/three/four numbers, let them do the stealing, put numbers in the wrong order, hide the number somewhere in the room. Whatever you like to jazz it up.
To change this for older ones just make up some cards with the numbers from times tables – I’ve been doing this game with the 3, 5 and 10 x table with Ewan over lockdown, and numbers 1-20 with Florence.
Then it’s time for a cuppa and a Toffee Crisp…seeing as the rain is back! (Never wanted a beach* bod anyway…!)
*paddling pool
Tell us a bit about yourself…
I’m Daisy, aka Five Minute Mum. I am a stay at home mum of two, Ewan who is 6 and Florence who is 4. For the past two years I have been running a blog which shares easy five minute games and activities for little kids to do at home to support learning. I now also have a book, so am wondering if I can say ‘author’ when people ask me what I do?! But I still mostly just feel like I am an ex-Teaching Assistant and stay at home mum.
@fiveminutemum
How are you finding being housebound at the moment?
I found the first month or so really fun and novel. I loved having the kids home and playing loads of games with them. I found the second month I both got into my groove but also started to feel a bit weary, and this month I am really exhausted and ready for a break!!!
Do you have any tips for other parents?
I shared a lot of my tips on my blog the first few weeks of lockdown and have found that actually this has tested them all to the limit and mostly I have stuck to them. Plan out days into rough segments, use themes to spark interest, get outside at least once a day, play five minute games first before I do any jobs to ease my guilt and get them going on play and always follow my golden rule – set up the activities first and let them find them and decide if they want to do them. I like to ease the pressure on us all!
Do what works for you. Don’t compare yourself to friends or people on social media. Every family has their own set up and what works for them. Once you’ve found that groove where you’re happiest then go with it. None of us have experienced this before. Keeping everyone busy and happy is the main aim here.
What is next?
I am currently doing a lot of writing and new game testing – watch this space!
