Looking for some hands-on ways for kids to work on multiplication, fractions, ratios, algebra and more? There are so many great ways to work on these skills with kids besides worksheets and textbooks.
Here are 50+ great ways for kids to learn math from games and real life:
(Note: This was supposed to be 50, but I kept thinking of just one more I wanted to add. Even so, I had to leave out so many great ways kids can learn math!)
- Play card games like Blackjack, times table war or other fun math card games
- Go shopping (coupons and sales add to the skills they’ll work on!)
- Play Monopoly
- Play dart games like 301
- Go bowling and keep score yourselves
- Follow a recipe (better yet, double it)
- Take a poll and graph the results
- Sew something
- Estimate the weight of a fish by its length
- Collect change and bundle the coins
- Play with adding machines, calculators and abacuses
- Pretend to invest in the stock market and see if you lose or make money — or really invest in it!
- Have a lemonade stand or other sales stand
- Play with Cuisenaire rods, tanagrams and other math manipulatives
- Play fun math apps like Dragonbox and Prodigy
- Figure out how long it would take for solar panels to pay for themselves
- Celebrate Pi Day and do lots of Pi related activities
- Play dice games
- Watch silly math shows like Maths Mansion on YouTube
- Make a play store with play money from the dollar store
- Plant seeds and garden
- Read fun math picture books like Sir Cumference and the First Round Table and Monster Math
- Save up for something
- Build with items like mini marshmallows and toothpicks
- Figure out the tip at a restaurant
- Do sudoku and kakuro puzzles
- Figure out how fast you can throw, run, bike, etc.
- Figure out the temperature outside by counting cricket chirps
- Redecorate your room (paint needs, costs for supplies, square feet, area, perimeter, etc.)
- Estimate someone’s height based on the size of their hand print
- Use measurement tools like tape measures
- Play sports and keep score
- Use online mortgage calculators to compare how much you’d pay total for various houses over different times with interest
- Plan trips (mileage, costs, etc.)
- Sell things at the farmers’ market
- Make a map to scale
- Start a square foot garden
- Balance a chemical equation
- Weigh produce at the grocery store
- Figure out a formula for how much to charge for something (like supplies plus so much an hour)
- Figure out what your bills would be if you moved into a local apartment
- Make a chart of all the Halloween candy you get
- Convert money to another country’s currency
- Count time between thunder and lightning to estimate how far away it is
- Set a goal for daily steps and track them
- Figure out taxes, social security, etc. from your first paychecks
- Compare how many of something there are to others (what color of M&Ms is the most common? how many meat eating dinosaurs were there compared to plant eating? how rare is this reward in a game compared to others?)
- Count down to an event
- Track the family’s electrical or water usage
- Play with puzzle books
- Build a treehouse or other project
This is honestly just a drop in the bucket. There are so many more ways that math comes up quite nicely in life! Tile the kitchen floor, go to the races and compare the odds and winnings of various horses, estimate how far away stars are and how long until we see their light, play with codes, make miniatures of something, do beading, knit or crochet….
