Be the first to comment on this article! »
My guys are into numbers lately. My eldest, especially, is big into number crunching and playing with the calculator. He spends a lot of time on, well, time.
Just last week I had a funny “aha” moment when his brother asked to play Star Wars Legos with him first thing in the morning. He said, “Well actually I need fifteen minutes to eat my cereal and stuff.”
His brother, not quite four, innocently inquired, “Well how long is that?”
Little Math man responded by saying, “Well, it is 15 times 60. You know, 900 seconds.”
I was dumbfounded, then I ran to check to see if he was right. I knew that my brother-in-law had given him a calculator to play with over the summer, but I had no idea that he was sooo into math. When I asked him about it he told me, flat out, that he wanted to go to a school that taught only math and soccer. So, I decided to check out some good websites for budding mathematicians, stuff that he would really get into and seem like a lot of fun and a small bit technical too, to challenge him a small bit.
We steered away from anything that looked too academic or boring. We picked sites that had a bit of pizazz but were also easy to navigate and functional. Here is our list of favorites:
1. MATH PLAYGROUND This site is developed for elementary and middle school level kids and includes games, word problems, puzzles, and videos. They also have a special “Build your Own Worksheet” section for preschoolers to fifth graders that includes skills like telling time, arithmetic, money, and times tables.
2. COOL MATH 4 KIDS This site breaks down activities, lessons, and games by subject matter, and is easy to navigate. Lessons are for kids ages 3 to 100 and they include fun quizzes and animated games of logic that are sure to get you thinking. Do you think you are a math genius? Well, take the test!
3. CTK MATH GAMES FOR KIDS This site has over 900 Java applets. It is a great resource. Much of the content is for kids learning some serious concepts, but there are many for kids that are beginners as well. One such game that my guy likes is Wolf and Rabbit. It is a good arithmetic agility test. You better be fast or the rabbit gets eaten. At CTK Math you can create and print out mazzes, work with barcodes, exercise your memory, and play with coins, learn some chess, just to name a few. And when you need to relax, they have games for that too!
4. KID BRAIN GAMES This site, for ages 6-12, includes word games, math games, search games, and logic puzzles. Visitors can play the games as guests, but if they sign up they get access to extra features like personal high score tracking and secret passcodes.
5. FUN BRAIN This site includes fun math games along with reading and grammar games. They include a section of playground games as well. This site is geared toward younger elementary age kids. You will find games that teach place value, numerals and their corresponding written numbers, patterns, arithmetic, and money, just to name a few. Each game has a level indicator, so kids can advance from easy to medium to hard as their skills improve.
6. DR. MIKE’S MATH GAMES This site offers games that expose kids to facts in a fun way. It provides rote learning without boredom and immersion in a mathematical concepts like: shape, color, subtraction, and others. Dr. Mike’s Math Games are broken down by age and ability and navigate by topic. He offers kindergarten through seventh grade math games.
7. CHANNEL 4 LEARNING This site offers a small but fun section of online math games that get tougher as the player gains more skills. Geared toward primary and elementary aged kids, and works with equation practice, patterns, and tangrams.
8. GOOGOL LEARNING This is a fantastic blog by Susan Jarema. You could get lost in there for hours. She has her own listing of favorite online math games, but don’t let that be the only page you view. Her blog is great for math educators, whether they be teachers or Homeschooling parents. Visit the shop as well.
9. KIDS NUMBERS This site is geared toward kids in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. It is designed by teachers, and is geared toward students at a variety of ability levels. students can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, time, money, fractions, geometry, and algebra in a fun and pressure free way.
10. MATH DOODLES This site, by Daren Carstens, has a handful of fun artsy math games for kids, and, well, adults too. Just click on the link and you’ll see what I mean.
UPDATE: I have to add another one I just discovered!
MATH GEOMETRY This link from Jefferson County Schools in Dandridge Tennessee provides 48 fun geometry games for kids.
For links to more online educational games visit Kid Central!
Tags: Calculator, Children, Game, Gaming, Kids, Kindergarten, Learning, Logic, Math, Mathematician, Online, Preschool, Puzzle
Related Articles:
- Top 10 Educational and Fun Websites for You and Your Preschooler
- Ten Fun Activities for Parents and their Gifted Preschoolers
- 10 Fun Things to Do While Waiting in Line with Preschoolers
- Traveling with Preschoolers
- “Great Corn Adventure” – game about the proliferation of Corn in our Culture
Meet the Author
