There are apps and tablet games you can also find for fact family fun.

She has co-authored two books for the popular Dummies Series (as Shereen Jegtvig).

One of the more common concepts taught in first-grade math is the concept of a fact family or fact families.

Your child probably has first-grade math homework this year and may even ask you to help with it.

At this stage of development, your child is learning to do basic addition and subtraction.

Just as in any family the members, or numbers, are related and there are always at least four math facts to be made with them.

Take, for example, these members of a fact family: 6, 4, and 10.

In the family 6, 4, and 10 they are related because you can add two of the numbers to get the last number.

You can also switch the first two numbers, using the commutative property of addition, and still get the same answer.

If addition is the direct relationship among these family members, then subtraction is the family cousin through the inverse property.

Simply put, subtraction is the opposite of addition, but its still related.

Solving addition and subtraction problems is then much easier and starts to become automatic.

Your child should quickly be able to recognize 4 as the missing family member.

A fun way to show the relationships of a fact family is to place the numbers in a house.

Draw a typical house with a square box topped with a triangle for the attic and roof.

Now in the attic triangle, place the three numbers that will be part of the family in three attic windows.

In the main part of the house, place four large windows that contain the four different math operations of the fact family.

Now your child can place the numbers appropriately in the equations and practice moving in their fact families.

You can end up creating a whole neighborhood, such as each of the numbers that add up to 10.

This method of showing the relationships can make math a little more fun and approachable by your first-grader.

Fact families help kids understand the patterns in mathematics.

You can find other worksheets for fact families in many places online if you want different ones to use at home.

Learn Math Fast Program Families