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### Playing Cards

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Personally, I know playing cards only to the extent of playing the classic solitaire and a few games like finding pairs. Back during the times when we can still stay out with good pals, my friends and I pass time at the coffee shop playing <a href = "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tong-its">"tong-its"</a> with which I always needed a refresher on how to play the game.

As for my children, they knew nothing about it. Well, not until they found the Solitare game on the computer and started exploring it. I guess they enjoyed the game so much so that they recalled the deck of cards, which were actually a giveaway during one of our flights, quietly stashed in one of our boxes on top of the wardrobe.

Initially, it was all for fun that I even thought them how to play *"unggoy-ungguyan"* (monkey) which is really just a matching game where one card is hidden, and whoever ends up holding the card without a pair is the monkey. Like any game, the playing card easily became their most recent "favorite game". 

### Skills from Playing Cards?

Aside from it being fun and a great way to pass time (not that we can really afford that), card games can be good for **strategy, math, even fine motor skills**. Oh yes, imagine those little hands trying to sort and keep those cards from falling off their grasp. LOL.

However, I think the kids felt that the "monkey" game was already becoming a bit boring so they started to put their own twist to their game. Then, my eldest started to test his **balancing skills** when he tried making a tower using the cards.

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<center><h3>The House of Cards</h3></center>

Today, the two younger ones had their hands busy while trying to put up their own house of cards. Little Miss already got the hang of it and could very easily make a 4-levels tower, albeit with full concentration.

Even the Little Man got challenged and also tried to make one, but just with 2 tiers. This really tested his patience and his handling skills.

<center>https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/arrliinn/a2JEBUmB-IMG_20210216_143626.jpg</center><center><sub>Busy little ones. No breathing!😁</sub></center>

At first, both of them were working on our table but it got so intense that one slight movement from one could "shake" the table and topple off the other's tower. 

Eventually, Little Man transferred to the floor which turned to his advantage because the rubber mats gave his cards a bit of hold. He finally was able to make his 2-tiered tower!


![IMG_20210216_144146.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/arrliinn/s1vzGBdl-IMG_20210216_144146.jpg)

His confidence built up that he decided he could add more!





![IMG_20210216_144330.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/arrliinn/MrUGpHcv-IMG_20210216_144330.jpg)

Meanwhile, Little Miss also completed her own tower. It held on for quite some time that she noted some cards that were a bit off, but still were strongly holding on.

![IMG_20210216_144314.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/arrliinn/VPEPtuDy-IMG_20210216_144314.jpg)

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<center><h3>The Memory Game</h3></center>

Remember the memory game we can download on our phones or play on the computer where you just click the on cards and find the pairs? I thought this would be another good game using the playing cards while trying to stimulate their growing brains.

At first, we tried with 5 sets of pairs. They were all too excited that all of them were playing at the same time and finding all the pairs was too easy. Well, that's *collective memory* working there, so that shouldn't count.

I leveled up the game some more where I made them play one at a time, this time with 13 pairs to work on! Yes, put that game face on and prepare to flip those 26 cards while trying to remember each of them.


![20210216_221341.gif](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/arrliinn/2MHahhbI-20210216_221341.gif)

As if it was not challenging enough, we put on a timer to know how long each one of us (yes, I also joined!) would take to finish finding all the pairs.

At first try, Little Miss finished her puzzle in 2:45 minutes. She was happy with her time, which I honestly thought was impressive as I was 10 seconds slower than her, until her Kuya played and finished in under 2 minutes!

The naturally competitive Little Miss of course did not give up and tried again until she almost even up with her Kuya clocking 1:55 at her third attempt.

### GG 

Good game, good game!

We had great fun playing cards today. It definitely gave them a bit more challenge than the usual "monkey" game. The games were stimulating, got their strategies to a good level, and it was a good bonding activity too!

As a Math exercise for Kuya, I gave him the task of recording all the scores and tabulating them. He thought he should also graph/chart them, so let's see about that.

How about you, are there any stimulating card games you can suggest for our little learners?



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