Ethan began his academic games session by playing a reading skills game called Grammar Gumshoes. In this game, young detectives examine parts of speech, sentence structure, verb tense, and punctuation to solve grammar mysteries. Ethan did an outstanding job playing this game and was excited to discuss the rules behind each question. After completing our reading game, we switched subject areas and moved to a math game called Flip Six. At the start of each round each player is dealt six cards and places them in two rows of three cards without looking at the cards. On a player's first turn, he first flips two cards face-up - one on the top row, the other on the bottom - then takes his turn, drawing the top card of either the discard pile or the deck. The player then either: replaces one of the cards in his array with the newly drawn card, placing the new card face-up and placing the replaced card on the discard pile. Discards the card he drew or places the card on a matching face-up card in his array, then discards both of these cards, then the card either above or below this position. The goal of Flip Six is to have the lowest total when the round ends, and the round ends when a player has six face-up cards, a player has no cards (due to discarding) or a player calls for the end of the round because she thinks she has the lowest score; in all cases, each other player takes one final turn. Players then tally their scores, which can be negative due to the deck including negative numbers. This is an excellent game for mixed ages. It requires basic addition and subtraction skills that most students will be able to handle. However, it is also fun for an adult playing with children! It is quick, requires strategic thinking and can have many winners in a short period of time. Ethan absolutely loved playing this game - he quickly picked up on the skills and strategy to win. Jackson even came in to join us for the last game and we had some heated competition!