Up and Down - A Jumping Game

I am extremely proud to be sharing today's newsletter, because it came directly from you!

One of my readers, Vila McHenry, emailed me this week to share a brand-new game that she and her son invented with the Tiny Polka Dot cards.

As Vila mentioned, her son is 5 years old, and was having a bit of trouble remembering how to count backwards from 10 to 0. So she invented this game to help him practice that skill in a fun, and physical, way.

The game is called Up and Down, and I can't wait to try it out with my own 5-year-old this weekend!

How to Play

You can play Up and Down indoors with cards or outdoors with numbers written in chalk. In either case, place the numbers about a foot apart each.

To start, the adult can be the Pointer, and the kid is the Jumper. The game sort of plays like Red Light Green Light. When the Pointer is pointing upward, the Jumper can jump from number to number, counting up as he goes. But when the Pointer starts pointing downward, the Jumper has to jump backwards and count down as he heads back toward zero.

As Vila says, "My son jumps forward as fast as he can, trying to get to the end before my finger changes direction! A typical round might go,  '1-2-3-4-5-6-...5...4...3...4-5-6-7-..6..7...6...7-8-9...8..7...8-9-10!!!'"

As Vila told me, it's very important that you and your child switch places. Apparently, they really get a kick out of being the Pointer and forcing you to jump back and forth.

Up and down is pretty simple, right? And yet it is the perfect game to practice this important skill that Vila identified. I'll explain below.

Where's the Math?

As you can see, Up and Down involves a lot of physical activity, which makes it fun and engaging for a kid this age. But that physical aspect is also the key to its magic as a learning tool.

Counting is a deeply complicated set of skills that your child learns over time. They must learn the sequence of words to count, match those with the numerals like 1, 2, 3, and so on.

The physical layout of the game gives your child a spatial model for thinking about the number line. When they hop forward from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4, they are using the numbers in the way they're used to. But when the Pointer begins to point downward, your child has to remember what number came just before 4.

Now this is hard to do when you've just memorized a sequence of number words. (It's even hard for us adults. For example: What word comes before "one" in the pledge of allegiance?)

But because they've been hopping along a line of numbers, they might have a stronger memory of where they just were. They were standing on the 3 and yelling "three!" 

So when they hop back, it's easier to remember the number they're returning to. When you pair information with a physical environment, you remember things more clearly. Perhaps you can recall taking a test in school and thinking back to the spot in your notes where that definition was written. "It was almost at the top of the page... Oh, I remember!"

I have to say, I am really impressed with Vila's game idea. It's perfect for this pre-k, kindergarten sweet spot, where kids want to be physical and playful. They probably won't even conceive of it as a math game, just a fun game their parents introduced them to!