Mathematical Games, Toys, and HobbiesMany children have hobbies, and most enjoy playing games with their families. One way families can do more math together is to play games that involve strategic thinking and reasoning, and point out the mathematics in them. Families can also spend time together exploring mathematical materials like blocks and puzzles, and collections of things like buttons or baseball cards. Also, reading together offers many opportunities for familes to talk about and do math together. See Mathematical Children's Literature for suggestions.
Websites with Math Activities:
These sites provide math problems, games and activities that family can do together, off of the computer.
Children's literature can also provide opportunities to do math together. SeeMathematical Children's Literature for suggestions.
- Checkers
- Chess
- Backgammon
- Mancala
- Mastermind
- Board games (such as Monopoly)
- Card games (e.g. Go Fish, rummy)
- Uno
- Set
- Krypto
- 24
- Tangrams
- Dominoes
- 2-D and 3-D Puzzles
- Construction toys (such as building blocks, Legos, or Kinex)
- Cooking
- Collections of things (stamps, coins, baseball cards, buttons, etc.)
- Building models
- Oragami and paper folding
Websites with Math Activities:
These sites provide math problems, games and activities that family can do together, off of the computer.
- At Home with Math: Ten Math Activities for Parents and Kids. Games and activities that families can do to include math in their everyday routines. Available in English and Spanish.
- Aunty Math: Math Challenges for K-5 Learners. A new math problem every other week. Visitors are encouraged to solve the problem and then share their work with an adult, friend or classmate.
- Early Childhood: Where Learning Begins. Mathematical actvities for parents and their 2- to 5-year old children.
- Figure This!: Math Challenges for Families. 80 sets of 4 paper-and-pencil questions that illustrate challenging middle school mathematics, from The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Hints and answers are provided.
- Helping Your Child Learn Mathematics. A booklet that includes activities adults can use with children in preschool through grade 5, to help strengthen their math skills. Also available in Spanish.
- The Math Forum Student Center. Links to games, resources, math software, mailing lists and other reference materials related to learning and teaching math.
- Mixing in Math. "Quick ways to mix math in to what after-school programs already do: sports, snack time, arts and crafts, playground games." The K-7 activities are "easy to prep ... easy to lead ... free ... and can complement homework in a variety of ways." Also available inSpanish.
- Sample Actvities: Math Everyday. Suggestions for doing meaningful mathematics while engaged in typical everyday activities like shopping in the grocery store, visiting the post office, traveling, cooking, or reading together.
- Summer Home Learning Recipes. Reading, writing, math and science activities families can do at home.
Children's literature can also provide opportunities to do math together. SeeMathematical Children's Literature for suggestions.