Magic Rocks

I have to say that Ellie and Addie have some pretty cool grandparents, and Grandpa has outdone himself again. He has created a wonderful game that I think is brilliant. It's called Magic Rocks. He bought some chocolate candy rocks (the kind that look real) and turned them into a math game for Ellie!

Here's how it is played...

Supplies you need: 10 candy rocks and one real 1 that looks similar.

Step 1: Lay out 10 rocks in a line and ask Ellie to count them.

Step 2: Separate the rocks into piles, talking about the math problem you're setting up. For example... If we have 10 rocks total and then we take away 2, how many do we have left?

Step 3: Ellie gives her response. She's able to count them or just come up with an answer, which ever she feels comfortable with.

Step 4: Regardless of her answer, she gets to eat a rock and it's Grandpa who hands it to her. However, if the answer is right, the rock "magically" turns into chocolate. If her answer is wrong, it's just a hard rock. He's sure to talk it up a lot with words like "Go slowly, be careful when you bite" in order to get her nervous about biting into a hard rock.

Step 5: Continue until all the rocks are gone (with of course, the exception of the hard rock that you conceal in your hand).

Step 6: Ellie stands up and runs to Mommy and Daddy bragging that she only had to eat a real rock only once!


DISCLAIMER: I'm sure it's obvious, but she never actually eats a real rock. She bites into it and is disappointed that the magic didn't work because her response was wrong, but then hands the rock back to Grandpa. Ellie is old enough to know that we don't eat rocks for real. Unless they're magic.