Parents and kids alike know I love games! They make our brains sharper while we have tremendous fun, and there is a game out there for everyone. The most common search results regarding card games and memory are about improving and retaining brain power as an older adult, but young players can benefit greatly, too. Here’s a short piece on how card games can improve working memory. http:// https://www.memory-improvement-tips.com/memory-card-games.h

Anther favorite is a game that my students call “Jackpot” (instead of War) where we challenge each other with random cards from our stack. As kids get more skilled, we may use two or more cards from our own hands to add, subtract, or multiply to see who wins. If our results are equal, we compare a second batch, and the winner gets the “Jackpot”!

Finally, there are traditional standbys like Go Fish, Solitaire (yes, even solitaire–practicing quick pattern recognition), Hearts, Spades, and hundreds more. So much joy and fun can be made with just a plain old deck of cards!