The Alvarez kids didn't know what to think when their mother started scrawling multiplication tables on cards. Isabel Alvarez awoke one day excited about her idea for a multiplication table card game.

BRAINERD, Minn. -- Consider this math problem: Find the square root of 49, double it, minus 5, square it, subtract 1, divide by 4, cut in half, cut in half, subtract 1, divide by 2, cut in half, cut ...