Next I'll Teach her the Poker Face

Have you ever seen school age children try to shuffle a deck of cards? It's comical, unless you're in a hurry, and then it's just maddening. I was playing my favorite game ("BLINK!") with a second grader today who insisted on shuffling. I watched her awkwardly try to move cards around by taking two or three cards at a time and put them in the middle of the deck. Finally I asked her if anyone had taught her how to shuffle. Then I tried to show her where to put her thumbs and her fingers and her index fingers so that it would work. It took her two or three tries before it kinda-sorta-kinda worked. It was all pretty funny, especially when cards went flying through the air at one point.

 

I'm not sure at what age you're supposed to master shuffling cards, and it's definitely not a goal in her IEP (ha!) but some life skills are worth interrupting academics for ... right?