Amazing maths family games for fun and learning

Math family games

In general, family games are a great way to incorporate learning. They are usually fun, oftentimes interactive and have the added benefit of being a multi-player activity, which means that every game will probably be different. The market for maths family games is not very extensive but there are tons of resources both online and offline that are steadily filling in this demand. We have rounded up some of our favourite maths board games and family games that take the board-dom out of learning maths.

Othello

Teach your child pattern recognition, spatial orientation, visual clustering and how to focus on more than one aspect, variable or concept at a time by playing Othello.

Mastermind

Mastermind is a great way to teach your child sequencing, logical deduction and pattern recognition

Chess

Chess can be used very effectively as a tool to teach problem solving and abstract reasoning.

Rubiks cube

Twisting the Rubiks cube can help children of all ages grasp important math concepts including area, perimeter, volume, angles, algorithms and enumeration, among many other geometry and algebraic topics.

Connect four

Basically, Connect Four is an advanced version of tic-tac-toe. The fun family game helps teach geometric thinking, planning and pattern recognition.

Dominoes

By playing dominoes, your preschooler can learn to recognize patterns like two odd numbers added together make an even number.

Tic tac toe

The strategic game of tic tac toe can help children develop spatial reasoning skills, logic, turn taking, directionality, and perspective taking. They will also learn basic math terminology like across, down, diagonal.

Snakes and ladders

The classic snakes and ladders which has as its main objective, the player getting to 100 in the least times/turns as possible. This is great to teach your child how to count to 100. You can also give this game a mathematical edge by improvising the way players can advance up the board. For example, have math cards that players need to take and solve before proceeding up the ladder.

Printables

Parents who trawl the internet for educational resources for their kids should be familiar with the term printables. A quick check on the internet resulted in several websites searches leading to sites that offer printable maths board games that teach concepts such as fractions, geometry and whole numbers. Our favourite sites for these resources are Math Games for Children and ABC Teach.

DIY

Last but not least, you can try your hand at making your very own maths board games with your child. Turn this venture into a craft project and come up with creative ways to represent problems in a maths board game format. This creative endeavour will help you bond with your child as well as allow both of you to think creatively about equations and how to represent them in a multi-player game.

Written by

Wafa Marican

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