Board games teach math skills-Interesting

Old fashioned board games teach math skills ; with all the hoopla in technology I found this interesting enough to repost from a homeschool message board

As noted on a homeschool message board,

Here are  several “ordinary” games that reinforce/use basic math skills: 

Monopoly – adding and subtracting larger numbers, making change/working with money
PayDay – adding and subtracting larger numbers, making change/working with money
The Game of Life – adding and subtracting larger numbers, making change/working with money
Yahtzee – multiplication, adding larger numbers
GeoBoards – geometry concepts
Tangrams – geometry concepts
Pentominoes – geometry concepts
Clue – logic, deduction, problem solving
Chess – logic, deduction, strategy, problem solving
Rack-O – sequencing, greater than/less than
MasterMind – logic, problem solving
Battleship – grid/graph coordinates

My go to resources for math games and activities are the books Family Math and Family Math for Middle School. Some nice games and activities can be purchased from the Boxcars and One Eyed Jacks folks, too. I like these because they don’t focus on just one skill or one skill level. They cover a wide variety of skills and even I sometimes find some of them challenging.

We often make up our own games. One the kids really like is Combinations. Choose a target number. Deal out four cards. Using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, try and see how closely you can come to that number. Score 1 point for each number off from the target score. After 5 rounds, the player with the lowest score is the winner.

All this to say that I don’t think you need to spend a bunch of money on games specifically for MATH, when you probably have games that can be used as math games already in the house…….

HTH!
Suz

Not all those who wander are lost. - JRR Tolkien 

The Cheap Chick

Suz MamaFrog

Posts: 387

Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:29 pm

Location: Laurel Valley, WV

The question originally was:

Which Math Games?

by Edwena on Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:23 pm

Since my math meltdown post, I have been doing a Math game with dd everyday that we’ve had school. She likes it and so do I. Seems like it’s helping her retain some things as well. Anyway, I’m thinking of buying a set of Math games. 

Does anyone have experience with some of the following?

Rightstart Math Games

Giggle Facts

Math Games to Master Basic Skills: Addition & Subtraction

Shuffling Into Maths

I know two of the products have a broader focus (more than addition/subtraction), so they’d definitely be able to be used longer. I don’t know if I should be so concerned with that right now. I am sure Kendra and Ami are familiar with some of the above. So if you were me and were only going to buy one thing, which would it be? Anyone else familiar with the above? The ones with the broader focus do they have a really good variety of games for addition and subtraction?

Mathgames Software:

My little girl that is similar to yours loves playin Sheppards Software, its free and fun games:http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm

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