In the era of online math games, exciting math board games and family math games are slowly disappearing. There used to be a time when kids would love to play Monopoly and count their money or add up the numbers on any car number plate that they would pass by. Let’s travel back in time and engage them in these cool family math games that would guarantee learning quite a bit of math as well as spending quality family time.
The Card Game
The objective of the game is to find pairs of matching cards among a group of cards lying face down. Write down addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problems on one set of index cards, and their answers on another set. Shuffle the cards and place them face down. The first player turns over two cards. If they match, the player keeps the two cards and takes another turn. The next player continues by trying to find two matching cards. When all cards have been collected, the player with the most pairs wins.
Perfect 10!
Write the number from 0-10 on index cards. Make 3 sets of each number. Distribute 2 cards each to the players and stack up the remaining. The objective of the game is to add up the cards in hand to 10. Start the game by passing one card each to the player on your right. Whichever player gets a set of cards that add up to 10, shouts out ‘Perfect 10!’ and discards the cards in hand before collecting 2 more from the stack. Play 10 rounds of ‘Perfect 10!’ and whoever manages to score a perfect 10 the maximum number of times, wins.
Grab and Count
Put a number of objects in a bag like crayons, coins, beans, buttons, etc. and have your child count all of them. Then ask her to put the objects bag into the bag and again grab a handful of the items and count them. Use subtraction to figure out how many items are now left in the bag. You too take a turn to play the game so that your child doesn’t feel like this is a math game with another intention!
The Dice Roll
Start out with 100 points in your kitty. Take a turn to roll two dice and subtract that number from your points. The next player takes a turn and rolls the dice and subtracts the resulting number from his points. Rolling a 1 on any of the dice makes a player lose his turn. Keep playing till the 100 is reduced to zero.
The objective of the game is to find pairs of matching cards among a group of cards lying face down. Write down addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problems on one set of index cards, and their answers on another set. Shuffle the cards and place them face down. The first player turns over two cards. If they match, the player keeps the two cards and takes another turn. The next player continues by trying to find two matching cards. When all cards have been collected, the player with the most pairs wins.
Perfect 10!
Write the number from 0-10 on index cards. Make 3 sets of each number. Distribute 2 cards each to the players and stack up the remaining. The objective of the game is to add up the cards in hand to 10. Start the game by passing one card each to the player on your right. Whichever player gets a set of cards that add up to 10, shouts out ‘Perfect 10!’ and discards the cards in hand before collecting 2 more from the stack. Play 10 rounds of ‘Perfect 10!’ and whoever manages to score a perfect 10 the maximum number of times, wins.
Grab and Count
Put a number of objects in a bag like crayons, coins, beans, buttons, etc. and have your child count all of them. Then ask her to put the objects bag into the bag and again grab a handful of the items and count them. Use subtraction to figure out how many items are now left in the bag. You too take a turn to play the game so that your child doesn’t feel like this is a math game with another intention!
The Dice Roll
Start out with 100 points in your kitty. Take a turn to roll two dice and subtract that number from your points. The next player takes a turn and rolls the dice and subtracts the resulting number from his points. Rolling a 1 on any of the dice makes a player lose his turn. Keep playing till the 100 is reduced to zero.