A math idea

This school year, I've decided that it's in the best interest of three of my kids to be home schooled. Home schooling for me is to meet the needs of my kids that the school doesn't tend to meet. For Jacob it's because he needs to be away from sugar. Connor (a very bright child) is failing in nearly every subject. Just to let you know that Connor is not just bright in MY eyes, he had very high (compared to other kids in the state) test scores in nearly every area tested. So why is he failing school? Sometimes kids aren't taught the way they need to be in order to succeed. The year before last he was really discouraged from thinking for himself in his best subject, math. Connor was working out multiplication problems in his own way but not being acknowledged for how very creative and bright that kind of thinking is. Don't get me wrong, I think teachers are overwhelmed in the school system. I wish that teachers could teach out of the textbooks of their choosing and that they could use their own style of teaching. Sadly, they must teach to a test with the districts choice of curriculum.
So now for the idea. I used this with my kids and another family when we did home school a few years ago. I put a math problem on one card and the answer on another. I did this with several problems, laminated the cards and made a math game. The game was memory - matching the problem with the solution. It was a fun way to learn, in this case, multiplication. I ended up teaching a small group of kids some advanced math the next year and found lots of good ideas which I will post here and there. I was going to put it in my other web site, but I think I will be tearing that one down. I can barely contribute to one!