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This guest post comes from engineer-turned-math-teacher (or "maths," as they say in Britain) Caroline Mukisa of Maths Insider:
Whether your geek child finds math difficult and needs more practice or whether your child is a math geek, here is a selection of math toys and games that actually work as tried and tested by my family of 4 geek kids aged 2-11.
Melissa & Doug Hands Counting Peg Puzzle Want a puzzle that lasts more than a few months? This puzzle helped my preschooler learn colors, numbers, counting and as an unexpected bonus taught him his left and right. Each piece is uniquely shaped; younger toddlers will need help fitting the puzzle pieces together, but actually the irregular shaped pieces served to keep the puzzle interesting for over 2 years!
Numbers 1-10 Write-A-Mat and Counting to 100 Write-A-Mat Does your preschooler hate writing? My 4 year old has to be bribed to even consider writing on a piece of paper, but give him a dry wipe marker and he'll trace anything. We've got wipe clean tracing books, and posters, but these Write-a-Mats are a popular addition to his wipe clean collection!
Learning Mates Monkey Math This game was great for my older kids when they were learning addition; hang the banana tokens on each side to make the monkey's arms balance. However the combination of monkey, bananas and a balance means even my preschooler likes to call out the numbers and try to set up the bananas so that they balance!
Sum Swamp Addition and Subtraction Game Do you have children who love board games? For a household with too many board games and children of varying ages, this is a surprising success! Older children get to practice addition and subtraction as well as odd and even on the swamp themed game board while younger children shout out the numbers on the dice and help to move the animal counters around the board whilst trying to avoid the crocodile! Great fun
Educational Insights Math Whiz Do you remember the Little Professor calculator? The Geek Dad in our house raved about the one he had as a geek child. It looked like a regular calculator, but it also flashed up drill questions. The Educational Insights Math Whiz is the 2010 version of the Little Professor complete with lights and sound for instant feedback. Still as geeky and much loved by geek son!
Equate: The Equation Thinking Game Love Scrabble? We do! So we were excited to get hold of this mathematical version of the classic word game. Instead of words, players try to form equations either horizontally or vertically with their tiles of numbers and operation signs. My 9 year old geek son and his friend managed to set up and play the game by themselves, and although not as popular as Scrabble, it's still a popular and the most geeky board game in our house!
Caroline Mukisa is mum to 4 geek children, only one of whom has taken it upon himself to memorize digits of pi. She provides math tips and advice at Maths Insider in order to help parents guide our future geeks mathematicians to math success.
