4 Fun and Creative Ways to Boost Your Child’s Math Skills

According to The Education Trust, roughly 30% of American students struggle with math. Many students have math anxiety over multiplication, division, and even simple addition and subtraction as early as elementary school. This can directly affect a child's ability to absorb and learn information, leading to further problems in middle and high school. If this is the case for your child, they are not alone! We spoke to experts to see how to make math learning fun if this sounds all too familiar.

Count With Board Games

Gamification is the process of applying fun elements to a chore or task – and it can be a great way to make math fun. Board games are definitely an underrated educational tool. There are many board games, such as Chutes and Ladders, Sorry, and Candyland, that require basic math skills and create an interactive learning environment. We spoke to Geillan Aly, founder and CEO at Compassionate Math, to learn more about how gamification can ease math anxiety.

“My toddler can already count to 100 and has a notion of moving forward and backward on the number line. This is because we play Snakes and Ladders,” Aly says, adding, “Lots of board games can be used to develop knowledge.”

Snakes and Ladders, also known as Chutes and Ladders, is one of the best board games for simple counting. Children count spaces as they move their pieces, using the board as a visual aid. This option is great for visual learners and improves a child's confidence in their counting skills.

Aly explains that Sorry is another great board game for learning math because of its rules. Players must roll a certain number to bring their pieces home, naturally becoming an addition and subtraction game. “We use regular dice—with dots, not numbers—to help with subitizing or automatically counting a small number of objects.” Learning is easier when you remove the fear of numbers by introducing something familiar and fun. It's never too young to teach your child basic math skills with board games, making this an easy and seamless option.

For children who have core math skills such as counting, addition, and subtraction, Monopoly is a great option. Counting money sums and subtracting taxes or purchases combines life skills and basic algebra. Money is one of the first things most people learn to count, and doing so through a game can take away the initial anxiety over doing it in real life.

Fraction Bars Offer Visual Learning

Aly shared with us that her five-year-old son is also starting to use fraction bars. These are another fun tool for every parent to have in their math arsenal before their child starts middle school. “For now, I'm not teaching him about fractions, but he can look at the pieces and see that dividing the same size object changes the size of the pieces, but you can put them back together to make the full-sized object,” says Aly.

Fraction bars provide a full visual for children learning what it is to add or take away a certain percentage. Using this as a way to introduce children to the idea of fractions makes the actual learning process far less intimidating. Aly adds that demonstrating simple fractions, such as halves or quarters, further shows how numbers can be broken down. For example, taking a fraction bar with four pieces and breaking it down into two and then again into fourths.

Multiply With Legos

Legos are among the most popular toys in the world, and for good reason. They create architectural masterpieces but are also wonderful multiplication tools. As Aly explains, the green building board that comes with a Lego kit is easily transformed into a three-dimensional math worksheet. “For now, I ask for pieces that are 1×4 or 2×6, etcetera. Sometimes, I'll ask how many total dots are on a piece to get him to start seeing relationships between multiplication and addition,” she says while explaining how she uses Legos to multiply with her son.

This is another case where a visual aid helps determine the answer to a math equation. A 1×4 block placed horizontally, with another 1×4 block placed vertically at its end, turns into simple multiplication.

Try a Math Game Subscription Box

We also spoke with Molly Lynch, a first-grade teacher with 22 years of experience behind her. Lynch is the founder of Lucky Learning with Molly, a brand that offers teaching resources for parents. One of Lynch's creations is Centers in a Snap, a math game subscription box. These boxes include standards-based math games that are designed with interactive gaming and visual learning in mind.

A subscription box like this can open up a world of fun math learning for your child. Centers in a Snap include all the pieces you need for each game, along with instructional videos and digital game access. Depending on your child's preference, they might enjoy computer games over board games or both, making these subscriptions a great choice.

Digital math games are a lifesaver for parents of homeschooled children. They're easy to incorporate into any routine and you can find different ones for each grade, such as Centers in a Snap for kindergarten to second grade or Prodigy Games, which offers curriculums up to sixth grade.

Why Math Learning Should Be Fun

Determining the “how” of a problem helps determine the “why.” Numbers are scary because they seem complex. For many children, this creates a negative narrative around learning math. Time constraints, social pressure, and a lack of compatibility in teaching methods all contribute to this stigma. Aly also specializes in math trauma—the study of why numbers can be so debilitating—and offers some final advice. “The idea is to give children a taste of more complex ideas without pressure and expectations. My only goal is to give him [my son] exposure so when these complicated ideas come up, they're not scary.”

Not every board game requires deep analytical analysis to be helpful with math. Even Jenga can be turned into an educational tool if your child counts their blocks. You can apply the same rule to games like Dominos or Monkeys in a Barrel. Sometimes, you only need a pair of dice, a color board, and some fun pieces to make learning fun.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Ground Picture/Shutterstock.com.