Numeracy Games to Play With Children

Playing is an effective way for children to learn. The concept of using a game to teach can be applied to most topics, and therefore is a useful tool for all teachers, including the home-schooling parent. Math is a difficult subject in that it is not always easy to communicate its principles in a way that is immediately obvious to a child. Numeracy games can be a fun way of dealing with this.

Online Games

As with any kind of educational endeavor, the Internet is extremely useful as a resource for numeracy games. The British Broadcasting Corporation has links to several resources for teaching on their website for schools, among them is the Number Time site for teaching math to kids. The site has a variety of games including Find One More which introduces children to the language and concepts of addition. In Find One More, the object is to find pairs of items by clicking pictures on a grid. Another game on the Number Time website is Test the Toad, which teaches number recognition and matching. There are several more games available, teaching everything from basic counting skills to multiplication.

Card Games

Card games are useful tools for teaching children about numbers and math. The numbered cards in most decks each have a value and a certain number of symbols on them. Most card games, even the simplest ones, have some addition and subtraction involved. Cards and card games can be used to teach addition and subtraction as well as multiplication and division.

Puzzles

Math puzzles are useful for teaching children about logic. Sudoku is a popular and addictive math puzzle. Children may be taught a basic version of Sudoku, in which digits from one to nine are placed in cells in a grid. Sudoku puzzles are available online from many websites and also in book form where it is possible to find books of puzzles organized by difficulty.