Math Games for Your Kids

When working on math (or anything, really) with your children at home, try to keep it fun. If you look at it as a chore, so will your children! I've decided to share some math activities that I've done with my own children at home. Most of these games are probably best suited for the elementary aged child, but some could be adapted for younger or older kids, as well. Be creative!

• Guess the Number-My kids, 2nd grade and 4th grade, love this one! Think of a "secret" number, and give them a range: perhaps between 1-200 for a second grader, and maybe between 200 and 1000 for a 4th grader.  The child has to guess the secret number.  Give clues like "higher" or "lower" until the child guesses the correct number.  Some kids may need help with the reasoning involved to narrow things down.  You can model this by periodically saying, "Ok, now we know that the number must be between 34 and 54", or whatever.  If your child has trouble playing this game mentally, make a big number line to use.
• Figure the Tip-More appropriate for the 4th-6th graders, my boss always has her nieces and nephews figure out the exact tip amount for the waiter when she takes them out to eat.  20% of the bill for standard service, more for superior service.
• Mental Math-This is a great car game.  Give a problem such as 43+52.  Explain how to mentally add the 40+50, and then the 3+2 to get 95.  The first person to get the answer gets a "point".  If necessary, take turns giving your children their own, ability appropriate problems to get their "points".  try this with subtraction and multiplication, as well.
• Find the Numbers-Another great car game, especially for road trips! The little kids can play along, as well.  Starting with one, compete to be the first person to find the number.  Work your way up as high as you can go.  You can make your own family rules, of course, but in our family, our rule is that when we get to numbers like 10 and 12, the two digits of the number can be IN another number, say 23104 or 125, but they must be in the correct order.  (So, not 23014 or 215).  Try playing this with the alphabet, as well.
• Heads or Tales Fact Families-My son needed some work with addition and subtraction fact families.  I got out some pennies, and called him over to the table.  You can begin with any amount over 3.  we started with 4 pennies.  I had him shake the pennies in his palm like dice, and then put them on the table.  He counted the amount of heads, 3, and then the amount of tails, 1, followed by the total, 4.  I modeled how to make the number sentence 3+1=4.  We repeated the process to get the other addition facts for 4.  Then we did subtraction sentences in the same way, before moving on to using 5 pennies, and so on.  My son actually had a lot of fun with this, and gained a better understanding of how addition and subtraction are related.  This is great for math fact practice, as well.
• Computer Games-do a Google search for "Math Games", and you'll find quite a few.  Our favorite is this one.  There's even a website to play Guess the Number here!  From the same website, there's even an interactive 100's chart to practice skip counting and multiplication tables.

Please share some of your own math games!