More Players:

The more, the merrier.

A Little Crazy:

Lay the cards out in a random pattern rather than in rows.

A Little Lazy:

For a bit of an easier game, use only cards 1-5 and 11-15.

Solitaire:

How quickly can your child find all the pairs on their own?

Deck Alternatives:

Instead of making a 0-20 Deck, you can print one (in color or in black and white), or you can buy this one we found. It's for classroom use, so it comes with 6 full decks of cards. Any one suit from a single deck would work for our games. The downside is it won't be your own one-of-a-kind creation. The upside is it'll be easier to shuffle.

Place Value:

This game helps young players practice adding and subtracting 10. This is a great opportunity to talk about place value (without necessarily using that term). Consider "17," for example. The "1" means "1 ten" and the "7" means "7 ones." So when helping a child think through 17 - 10, say something like: "Hmmm, 17 means 1 ten and 7 ones. So if we take away 1 ten from that, we'll have no tens and 7 ones. What would that leave us?" Similarly, a single-digit number like "4" means "no tens, and 4 ones." If we add 10, we have "1 ten and 4 ones," which we write as "14." The important thing isn't to be technical, but to emphasize groups of tens and ones.

Spatial Awareness:

Talk out loud about how you remember where a card is: "Hmmm, I remember that the 2 was in the top row somewhere." Encourage your child to do the same. Use words like "row" and "column," as well as "top," "bottom," "left," "right," and "middle." (Remember, columns go up and down, like columns in a building, and rows go left and right.)

Strategy:

Which card should you flip over on your turn? If you don't already know where a pair is, it's best to flip over an unknown card first. Maybe it will be the missing partner of a card whose location you already know.

Comparison:

Can your child find a way to see who has more cards at the end without counting? This can be done using a matching strategy. Line up all of one player's cards, then line up all of the other player's cards next to them, so each of one player's cards is paired with one of the other player's cards. If every card has a match, then both players have the same number. If one player has some cards that can't be paired, they must have more cards.