Take a break from textbook math and enjoy yourself!
I like to use games as a warm-up with my co-op math classes. Some homeschoolers make every Friday a game day, and some turn gaming into a family lifestyle.
“Playing games with your kids offers a host of educational benefits, plus you build relationships and make memories. I am constantly amazed by the amount of learning that happens when I sit down to play games with my children.”
—Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley
Gameschool Challenge
In addition to the games below, you may want to check my weekly Math Game Monday post.
Family Games for All Ages
- The Substitution Game (Best Math Game Ever)
- Tens Concentration
- Math Club Nim
- Tell Me a (Math) Story
- The Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure
- What Number Am I?
- Fan Tan (Sevens)
- Avoid Three, or Tic-Tac-No!
- Horseshoes: A Place Value Game
- Six Hundred
“Games put children in exactly the right frame of mind for learning difficult things. Children relax when they play — and they concentrate. They don’t mind repeating certain facts or procedures over and over, if repetition is part of the game.”
Accessible to Young Children
- The Stair-Counting Game
- Number Train
- Card Holder for Young Hands
- Number Bond Games
- Active Math Game: Rock
- Land or Water?
- Chopsticks
- The Number Grid Game
- Addition Games with Cuisenaire Rods
- Free Multiplication Bingo Game
“Coming back from winter break can be hard. Everyone is sleepy, unfocused, and daydreaming of the holiday gifts that await them at home after school. And that’s just the teachers!”
—Andrew Gael
Beat the Back to School Blues…Play a Math Game
For Elementary Students
- Fill the Stairs Game
- Place Value Fish
- Thirty-One
- Princess in the Dungeon Game
- Times Tac Toe
- 30+ Things to Do with a Hundred Chart
- Hundred Chart Nim
- Euclid’s Game on a Hundred Chart
- The Game that Is Worth 1,000 Worksheets
- Multiplication Models Card Game
- Review Game: Once Through the Deck
- Contig Game: Master Your Math Facts
“If you play these games and your child learns only that hard mental effort can be fun, you will have taught something invaluable.”
Middle School to Adult
- The Substitution Game (Best Math Game Ever)
- What Two Numbers?
- Fraction Game: My Closest Neighbor
- Target Number (or 24)
- 30+ Things to Do with a Hundred Chart
- Hit Me
- Alcumus Online Problem-Solving Game
- Math Games with Factors, Multiples, and Prime Numbers
- Graph-It Game
- Logarithm War
- The Function Machine Game
- Math Game: War with Special Decks
“Mathematics is mental play, the essence of creative problem solving. This is the truth we need to impart to our children, more important than fractions or decimals or even the times tables. Math is a game, playing with ideas.”
—Denise Gaskins
Let’s Play Math: How Families Can Learn Math Together—and Enjoy It
Your Turn: What Are Your Favorite Games?
They don’t have to be math! Please share in the comment section below!
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Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 
In my classroom we play a multiplication game. I call it Trifecta because it requires a group of 3. Two of the players hold a card to their forehead- facing out. The third multiplies the two cards and gives the product. The other two have to figure out their card without looking – it is now a missing factor. As a side note: we remove the face cards and aces.
That’s a great game for developing the relationship between multiplication and division. Or for younger children, you could add the cards rather than multiply.
The biggest challenge is that the players must be closely matched in ability level, or the weaker student will just give up. It’s even harder for homeschooling families since our kids tend to spread over a wider range of ages and abilities than in a classroom. Games that rely on speed usually don’t play well in a family setting.