13 great math board games for kids
Gather ’round children! Today we are going to learn about one of the coolest fields of study: math. “But numbers are boring!” I’m sure you’ll say. They are on their own, yes, but what about when those numbers are baked into a fun board game? Then they are the opposite!
1. Say Cheese
Remember that game Mouse Trap? With all the rolling marbles and pulleys and levers and falling cages to catch mice? Say Cheese isn’t interested in trapping mice with food, it’s interested in educating mice with food. And boy is there a lot of food. This is a basic arithmetic (a fancy word meaning “math”) game that focus on multiplication. That’s when you put an “x” between two numbers to make them bigger.
2. Race to Infinity
Race to Infinity isn’t an actual race to infinity. Infinity – after all – goes on forever. You can’t count to it. You just keep counting and counting, getting closer and closer, but you never quite get there. That doesn’t sound fun. But this board game is! Unlike in real life counting, you actually CAN reach infinity in this game by outwitting your opponents with your ever growing math brain!
3. Monster Sock Factory
Monster Sock Factory provides two necessary things: mathematical education and socks for needy monsters. It’s a multiplication and division game (those things that make numbers way bigger and way smaller) where you deliver socks to monsters on a snowy day. Foot AND heart warming.
4. Math Island
Picture this: you’re stranded on a desert island. Hot sun. Dense jungle. And nothing but ocean as far as the eye can see. How are you ever gonna get off Math Island? With math! With basic arithmetic (again just a fancy word for math) you can make your escape from the island way more easily than you could from a real one!
5. Proof!
Proof! is a math game involving the wisest group of people in the world. Mathematicians? Doctors? No. Wizards. These wizards will help you perform the magic of mental math. What’s that? It’s when you do math not with pencil and paper, but inside your own mind! A powerful sorcery indeed!
6. Adsumudi
Playing Adsumudi is almost as fun as trying to pronounce it! Like Proof! it is a mental math game, only this time your guides are not wise wizards, but mathematically adept monsters! Look at all these weird little guys! Asmundi offers 416 separate math challenges for your math brain, let’s see those wizards try to compete with that.
7. Shut The Box
Tired of flash cards and mental math? Shut The Box is perfect for you. It’s a game that uses real pieces on a designated table, and lets you throw stuff! Dice, mostly. But I suppose you could throw the pieces into the air to celebrate your glorious victory over your opponents. Just clean up afterwards.
8. Asweets
Asweets is advertised as a Montessori school game. What’s a Montessori school? It’s an alternative kind of school where they do much more hands on learning through games and trips. Sounds way cool. This particular game is designed to teach addition and multiplication. There’s a different game on each side! Two games for the price of one! That’s some adult math, saving money.
9. Sum Swamp
A swamp is not usually the kind of place you want to find yourself in. There are bugs, alligators, poisonous snakes, and definitely a spooky witch or two. Sum Swamp is different. It still has alligators, yes. But they’re not trying to eat you. They’re trying to teach you. You and your friends can play as mathematically minded frogs hopping your way towards amphibian victory.
10. Number Park
What’s the best thing in the world? An amusement park. I’m talking rides. I’m talking corn dogs. I’m talking games to win giant stuffed animals. The whole nine yards. Number Park might not have any of those things for real, but you can at least imagine screaming your head off on the rides while solving math problems. And when you win, you can scream in victory and DEMAND that the loser takes you to the real amusement park to celebrate.
11. Shore Seekers
Shore Seekers is a math game about the noble sea turtle. If you’ve ever seen any kind of David Attenborough (the funny voiced British dude) documentaries about nature, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Or Finding Nemo, there’s a chill sea turtle there too. If you know anything about sea turtles, you know that they don’t spend 100% of their time in the water. Sometimes they go on land. And that’s exactly what you need to help them do! Use your math skill to help these turts navigate around an island! Whoever does it the fastest is the winner!
12. Mountain Raiders
Mountain Raiders isn’t as thrilling as climbing a literal mountain, some will say. But will they change their tune once they realize this particular mountain has monsters and treasure? Not even Mount Everest has that! Just boring snow! In Mountain Raiders you’ll use your addition skills to avoid monsters and ascend to the peak to collect a fabulous pile of gold! After all, you know what the best thing in the world to count is? Money.
13. Prime Climb
Prime Climb is for the real smart ones, the ones who have summited the addition mountain and are looking to make an even more difficult climb. Prime Climb teaches players about prime numbers, numbers that can only be divided by 1 and themselves. Prime numbers are one of the most important concepts in mathematics. They’re essentially the building blocks of all other numbers! Lots of advanced mathematicians use these numbers to solve super complicated equations and help scientists discover the secrets of the natural world. After all, a wise man once said that mathematics is the language in which the universe was written. If you want to take your math skill to the next level, you need climb the primes.
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