Sparking and maintaining your child’s interest in math can be a daunting proposition. Grasping this abstraction we call “Math” can be challenging or even difficult. Don’t despair, although you may not know it, you have great tools at your disposal fun math games. Once you find the right tools to ignite your child’s interest there’s no turning back.
The Toolkit
The tools for capturing your child’s interest in math… the fun math games, are readily available, in the form of books, e-books, and websites. So, your toolkit can contain instructional material, board games, reproducible games, and links to various websites. If you search Amazon.com for “math games”, you will find a plethora of potential tools with which to stock your toolkit. Searching the Web for “math games” will produce a list of applicable sites, from which you’ll have to cull the entries most appropriate for your child.
The Dessert Not the Meal
In terms of incorporating fun math games into your child’s study schedule, the games are the dessert not the meal. You should ensure that the basics are covered first, but make it clear that the game will be available once the “homework” is completed in a satisfactory manner, thus establishing a reward for a job well done.
Book or E-Book, that Is the Question?
While reproducible or printable games may be acquired from a book, e-book, or online, I would start by looking for a good e-book. The reasons for starting with the e-book search is that it will yield the most robust user experience for your child. A good e-book can easily be printed (in the comfort of your home), whereas a traditional paper book must be copied. A good e-book will contain many more and a greater variety of games than your typical paper book.
Online Resources
With respect to fun math games online, there are not as many resources as one might imagine, but the resources that exist are pretty helpful.
That said, most of the online game fare is just primitive by today’s standards. The reality is, most kids are used to a very high level of game play in virtual 3D worlds. These types of games are not likely to be the kind of games available from CoolMath-Games.com, MathPlayground.com, or Multiplication.com. I’m aware of is one piece of math software that has the sort of modern game play that will have your child riveted to the screen and that is “Timez Attack”.
Wrapping It Up!
When looking for games, it is actually easier to find a good board game or reproducible game than a good online game or piece of software. Remember, much of the game play for a board game or reproducible game stems from human interaction. With an online game or gaming software, human interaction is virtually lost… so you have to know your child’s expectation of the gaming medium to find something they will actually play.
If you get it right, you can put you children on a trajectory that will enhance their future and how they view themselves, for the rest of their lives.