Logic Games
Here are some games that can help children take on the world of maths. Games can build skills and develop confidence for solving maths problems.
Starting out: Draughts, dominoes (also good for quick recognition of groups of numbers), snap!
Getting harder: Simple chess games- try playing with the white queen and the black pawns. Can the queen take all the pieces before the pawns reach the other side of the board? A great way for developing skills in applying logic.
"Pawn Wars" is a great way to play and teach kids about chess, each player starts with only pawns on their starting squares and the winner is the first one to reach the other side. Later you can bring in the kings.
Mastermind is good for logical sequencing.
Tricky: Chess - great for predicting and seeing patterns.
Dots and boxes is a game of strategy that looks deceptively simple. Wikipedia gives you the heads up on strategies you can use to stay a step ahead. The game was invented by mathematician Edouard Lucas, who spent a lifetime studying patterns.
Sudoku - there are lots of sudoku books on the market, just be careful... some of us find it completely addictive!
Maths in disguise
Hide maths inside an irresistible project. Make a sailable boat using modelling board and glue. A quick search on youtube should find a design. Measure carefully to make it leak free. You can scale up or down plans you find and work out sizes of boards you need etc. All this can help your child to get good at problem solving. It also uses lots of maths skills including multiplication, division, working out area and using measurements.
Cooking uses measurements, and buying ingredients means working out costs and change (and you get to eat it all at the end!)
Card games like 21 (sometimes called Pontoon) are great for speed addition. Deal 2 cards and count the total value of the two cards, in turn each choose to twist (take another card) or stick (not take another card). The person who gets closest to 21 is the winner (aces can be high at 11 points or low at 1 point and all royal cards are 10 points), be wary, if you twist and your card takes you over 21, you're bust!
Active maths
Sometimes we just need an excuse to be silly: Building a maths sculpture is great fun. You can practice the four operations (x รท + -) this way. Set it up as a series of clues- the giant you are going to create needs 3x3 eyes and 49 divided by 7 legs, but only has half the toes that you have....
Thinking along the lines of maths clues, a maths paper chase with numbers dotted around the park can be great for those who love learning outside. Create a "maths" clue for each number. Having a prize at the end can make the fact that the clues are maths equations motivating. Much more fun than doing the same number work at home at the table!
How to help with Maths at home
Lots of maths can be done as practical activities.
You may find that as your child progresses in Maths, they need to be introduced to an idea they have not thought about before. Below are some ideas for helping children who struggle with formal maths.
Maths is like building with bricks, it all falls down if your foundations are wobbly or the bricks at the bottom are not secure. Everybody learns through slowly building their understanding. If you go too fast, or you expect children to understand something they are not ready for, they are just not going to get it. Here are some tips for helping children when they get stuck:
- Keep a tricky new idea simple- introduce it in simple steps, one idea at a time and when you see they have had enough, stop and do something else.
- Try to make the work simpler. Let them get really confident with something that they can do.
- Work on problems that stretch their understanding a bit, together.
- Get them to practice a few similar problems, with you slowly taking more of a back seat.
- Try to get them to set you a problem, then they can watch you sort it out!
- Ask them to explain to you how they worked a problem out .
- Try giving them some tasks where they need to use the method to sort out a real life problem.
- We all see things differently, so try different ways of showing something that they are not getting. Don't forget that using real "things" is a big help. There is a lot of maths equipment available to help with this. Tiddlywinks are cheap and can be used to help with adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.
- Stay patient and try not to put too much pressure on them. If they are really struggling, stop and do something else.