22 Cool Math Games for Kids: Fun Activities with Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction

Your kids like playing cards and dice, right? Well, with cool math games for kids you can literally play math into your children using for instance cards and dice.

Playing fun math games for kids will transform math from a boring work-like challenge into pure fun and games.

Taking a playful approach to teaching children about math will not only be more effective when it comes to learning it will definitely also be a lot more pleasurable ... for you too.

On this fun math games page you will get lots of inspiration and practical tips to play everything from multiplication math games to math addition games to math fraction games.

So hang on tight, this is going to get fun! :-)

Why Fun Math Games for Kids Are Effective and in Sync with Your Kid's Brain

When it comes to teaching kids anything, games are most often the way to go.

Think back to when you were a child: The things that you remember most were the ones that you were actually interested in, or that you enjoyed.

All the games that you played with your parents or siblings were the ones that actually helped to imprint things on your mind, and the same will be true for your child.

Did you know that the mind can actually learn things quicker when it is playing a game?

There are a few reasons for this:

1. Games Usually Involve a Lot of Repetition

Seeing as how repetition is the law of memory, anything that you repeat over and over is guaranteed to stick in your head very effectively.

So playing fun math activities that force you to repeat the same mathematical calculations over and over is guaranteed to teach.

2. Games Are Always a Lot More Fun

Many kids have trouble sitting still and copying things from the whiteboard, but turning traditional teaching into math games for kids adds an element of fun to it. And fun is the driving force behind most of children's activities - kids math games too.

3. Games Come in a Wide Variety

With learning math problems like addition and subtraction, there is only one way to learn it.

However, practicing it can be done in many forms, and this is where games have the edge.

The games can involve everything from online zombie attacks, space invaders to offline fun challenges with cards and dice that will stimulate your child to practice their math.

Variety is the spice of life, and it is what will help your child to learn their math effectively.

As you can see, math games are the best way to help your child learn his or her math, and it will make it much more fun for your kids to learn - no matter how challenging it is.

Using Cards when Playing Cool Math Games for Kids

One of the best ways that you can teach math for kids is by using card games.

The playing cards are all based on numbers, and you can play many games with cards that will help your child learn his or her math.

There are so many cool math games for kids you can play with cards, and you can also bend and twist the rules to invent your own games.

Here are a 7 card games that you can use to teach your kids math:

Two, Three or Four Card Indian Poker

The game of Indian Poker involves each player holding a card face out to his or her forehead. Everybody can see each other's cards except his or her own.

Then the betting starts and judging from each other's cards people around the table have to say whether they are "in" or "out". The ones that are "in" take down their cards and the player with the highest card wins the round along with the "in" players' betting.

In this math game for kids variety, rather than holding a single card, have each player hold two, or three or four cards to his or her head.

Each person will have to do mental calculations (either just addition but perhaps also multiplication if you want to make the game more difficult) to determine who has the highest pair.

Uno with a Twist

Uno is a card game that focuses on numbers and colors, but it can be a great game for smaller children with a twist added.

If a Skip or Reverse is put down, treat it like the face cards in a regular deck and put down two cards of equal value in order to avoid the card.

It will take a bit of practice to get it right, but it can be lots of fun once your children get the hang of it.

War

In the game of War, all of the cards are dealt out evenly to each player, and all of the players turn over the top card in their hand.

The highest card wins the game, but a war is caused when two or more of the highest cards are of equal value. Then each person has to put three cards face down and one on top of them face up.

The one with the highest card wins all the cards involved in the war.

The game continues until one of the players has lost all cards.

With a few small changes, the game can be turned into a math game.

Addition War

War is a game where the highest card wins, but what happens when there are two cards of equal value?

With Addition War, the war results in all three cards being placed face up, and the person with the three highest cards wins the war.

Subtraction War

Subtraction War is a similar kind of kids math game, but with a simple variation.

The three cards are placed face down and the final card is placed face up.

However, each player has to select one of the cards that are face down and subtract the value of that card from the card that is face up.

The person with the highest score wins the war.

Multiplication War

Multiplication War involves two cards being placed face down, and two cards being placed face up.

The two face up cards are multiplied to determine who wins the war.

In the example to the right 4 is multiplied by 7 and 5 by 9.

So as you can see there are many, many ways to spin War in cards - the only limit is your own imagination :-)

Blackjack

Blackjack can be used to teach your children addition, as well as thinking quickly and doing mental calculations.

Each player is given two cards - one face down and one face up.

The sum of the cards are added together according to their values (number cards are the value of the number, face cards are valued at 10, and an Ace card is valued at either 1 or 11 as the player wishes).

Cards can be given to players as requested, but the total value of their cards cannot pass 21. The person closest to 21 with the fewest number of cards wins the game.

All of these cool math games for kids are excellent for teaching your kids all about math, and you will find that it will be much easier for them to learn simple math skills if you use these great games to teach them.

Using Dice for Cool Math for Kids

Dice are also excellent to use to help your child learn math, and there really is no end of games you can use to teach your children math skills.

Here are a few ideas for fun math games for kids for teaching math with dice:

Addition Addiction

This game teaches your children to use their math speeds in their head to quickly calculate sums.

Hand each child a dice along with a pen and a piece of paper.

Have each child roll their dice at the same time.

Then each person has to add all the numbers of all the dice together and every person has to note the sum down on their piece of paper.

After ten of such rounds everybody has to add together the 10 numbers on their paper.

It will be interesting to see if you can all the get same sum.

Subtraction Speed

Rather than adding the numbers together, have the person with the highest dice subtract his or her number of points from each of the other players.

Each player starts with 100 points, and the last one to reach 0 wins the game.

An example: one gets a 6, the two others get a 3 and 2. The person with 6 gets to subtract 6 from each of the other players which will leave them both at 94.

You can also add a variation on the game where the person with the highest dice has to come up with a subtraction problem that the other person has to answer or else lose a certain number of points.

Multiplication Mystery

Divide the players into teams of two, and have each player roll their dice.

Both players have to come up with other multiplication problems that have the same product as the product of their two dice, thus forcing them to practice their 1 through 6 times tables.

Consider using two dice each to have them practice up to the 12 times tables.

Dice Rolling Action

Have your small child (ages 2 to 4) practice rolling the dice and telling you what the number on the dice is.

Obviously this game will get easier over time, but you can use many-sided dice (up to D20) to help them practice understanding both numbers and dots.

Division Dice

Hand each player 4 dice, and have them take turns throwing all four dice.

The player throwing the dice has to come up with a result that involves the sum total of the four dice divided by one of the numbers on the dice.

Some of the math games for kids that you can play with dice are pretty complicated, but you can bet your boots that they will help your kids learn math like nothing else can!

Fun Math Games for Kids Online - for all Ages

If you want variation to the above math games the world of modern technology can also lend a helping hand.

There are many online games and websites where they can find a wealth of fun games to play.

Check out some of the sites below:

CoolMath-Games is a site where your child can find cool math games for kids of all ages.

There are all kinds of games, such as puzzle games, strategy games, color games, pictures games, logic games, and more, and these games can all put your child's math skills to the test.

The wide variety of games are all simple and easy for your computer to play, making them a great choice no matter who you are!

Fun4TheBrain is a website where you can find a lot of Flash animated games for your child, but these games are much more complex and comprehensive.

Here you can have your child feed hungry aliens, give reindeer cookies, recovering stolen leprechaun gold from thieving crows, and so much more.

The wide variety of games on this site is sure to capture your child's attention.

LearningGamesForKids is another excellent site with all kinds of fun, simple kids math games that can help your child learn mathematics.

They have games ranging from kindergarten math games to 5th grade math, thus enabling your children to practice their math skills no matter their age.

There are games in all categories, but the math games are some of the most fun and educational on the site.

If your child is hungry for math delivered in a fun way, it is definitely worth checking out this website.

Still More Fun Math Games for Kids to Make Math Fun

Here are a few more fun math games for kids and fun math activities you can try to help your child improve their math skills:

Coin Counting Math

Using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters is a great way to teach your children basic math skills, and you will find that there are hundreds of variations of games that you can play with coins to teach them.

You can give them a penny and ask them how many they need to make 15 cents, or you can give them dimes and tell them to make change for a dollar and a half.

The point is to use the money while creative coming up with math problems for your kids to solve. In this way you can teach them basic math skills such as division, addition, subtraction, multiplication and math logic.

Real Life Word Problems

Word problems may not seem like a lot of fun, but imagine giving your children real life word problems that they have to figure out, such as how many spoons of flour you need to add to your pie to equal one cup.

Or how many dollars you need to buy a $10 item with a $2.50 coupon, and on the list goes.

Word problems don't have to be boring, and with this one of math game for kids you can find ways to make them fun just by getting creative.

Store Owner Inside the Kitchen

Teaching math through games can be a lot of fun, and there is nothing more fun than having your kids go shopping for you.

If you don't want them to do the weekly shopping with you, have them run their own "store" inside your kitchen and use Monopoly money to purchase the items you need for your meal.

You can use money to teach math, the number of grams in a kilogram, the number of ounces in a pound or quart, and so much more.

Giving the kids a chance to use their real life hands on experience can make the math come alive to them.

Addition Poker

With poker, you have to find a combination of five cards that will be advantageous, but addition poker requires them to get the combination of five cards with the highest total value.

Kings are the highest at 13 points, followed by queens at 12, Jacks at 11, the number cards at face value, and Aces at 1 point.

You can make any kind of variation on the game, playing Texas Hold Em, 5 card stud, 7 card stud, or any other poker games to get them to use their math skills.

Math Bingo

Bingo is a classic game that you can use to help your children learn math in terms of multiplication math games.

You can get a regular bingo set, but rather than calling out the numbers you will call out mathematical equations that give them the number.

For example, say the number you draw is 24, you can call out "8 times 3", "6 times 4", "48 divided by 2", and on and on it goes.

The rules remain the same (the person to get five in a row first wins), but it forces them to use their math skills to figure out what number you have called.

Monopoly

Monopoly is a game that you can use to teach smaller children about math, and the whole game is based on the economic system (numbers and figures).

They have to count the numbers on the dice that they roll, they have to count the number of spaces they move their figure, they have to know how much money to give to buy a property, and they have to give money to the owner of the property they have landed on.

The whole game is based around math, and this one of fun math activities is a good one to help them start learning.

Connect Four

Connect Four is a game that requires kids to use their head, logic, and math skills.

They can't just drop four of their markers into the stand and hope they will fall in the right place, but they will need to count how many markers to use in order to get the four in a row.

As an example of cool math games, Connect Four is the perfect combination of math skills and logic, and you will find that it will help your children to develop their intellect very effectively.

Candyland

Candyland has much less math in it than Monopoly, but that is what makes this kind of cool math games for kids great for very small children (between the ages of 2 and 4).

The child will have to count how many spaces they are moving (when rolling dice rather than using the color cards), and it can help them to develop their math skills.

Math Memory

Memory is a game where you spread out a deck of cards face down on the table. Then each player takes a turn of turning two cards, looking for a matched pair (e.g. 2 of diamonds and 2 of hearts).

When a matched pair is found, the player can remove the two cards in question. When the two cards don't match, the player has to turn them face down again and the turn passes on to the next player.

The game continues until there are no more cards and the one that has collected most pairs is the winner.

But you can make your own math memory set to help them improve their math skills.

All you need to do is to find some cardboard and a pair of scissors and make one set of cards that has a mathematical equation on them (say 8 times 3), and the other set of cards with the product of the equations (8 in this example).

You can also make two sets of cards, both with equations that come out with the same product or sum ("8 times 3" is the match of "6 times 4").

This one of fun math activities can help to stimulate their brains and get them thinking about math equations in a fun way.

Math Go Fish

Don't play the regular go fish, but have them ask each other for cards using mathematical equations.

This will make them think about what card the other person wants, as well as what cards the other players have.

It will force them to remember mathematical equations using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and will ensure that their math skills improve.

It can actually turn the game into quite a challenge as you try to come up with math problems that only the person you are asking for the card can understand, and it will push your children's minds.

Who said that learning math has to be challenging or complicated for your child?

Thanks to these cool math games for kids, your child can learn their math skills as easily as they can pick up playing the memory game or Go Fish.

Getting them hooked on these games is actually easier than you might expect, and you can bet your boots that they will be much more interested in learning thanks to the fact that you have made it fun for them to do so.

Good luck with teaching your child math using these fun math activities!

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