Does your kiddo balk at sitting in front of a math workbook? You know that they know how to do the math, but when in front of a workbook they all of a sudden turn ADD? This is my kiddo. And I don’t really blame him. There are a ton of fun ways to learn math, instead of just sitting in front of a boring workbook. For the child who hates math workbooks and worksheets, here are some hands-on activities that have helped us to make math more fun and exciting!
Use Games!
Who can say no to a game?! It’s always an ecstatic, “Yes!” when I say we’re going to play a math game! Thanks to Pinterest, there is no shortage of math games. Games are great for kinesthetic learners and kids who need to move to learn. Here are just a couple we’ve done:
Games for Addition & Subtraction
- Add and subtract dominoes
- Draw cards from a poker deck, and add up to 100
- Using playing cards, draw two or three cards to make a three- or two-digit number and then draw another 2 cards to make a two-digit number to add or subtract. Then, figure the problem out on a dry-erase or chalkboard.
Games for Multiplication
- Multiplication War: Split a deck of cards in half, each person draws 2 cards, and whoever has the highest product gets all the cards.
- Pick a domino, and multiply!
- Domino War. Each person has takes one domino and whoever has the largest product, wins the match.
- Roll a pair of dice and multiply! Then hop to the answer on a hundred learning mat!
- Using a hundreds learning mat, have your kiddo practice multiplication by jumping or hopping to the answer. This is great for active kids.
A hundred learning mat can be used for a ton of different games and math skills: addition, subtraction, skip counting, multiplication, and looking for patterns.
Money Math
- We love the Money Bags game! This game is a favorite even outside of learning math. (You can use the fake money to play other buy-and-sell store games too.)
- PayDay is a fun game too! This game is supposed to give kids a taste of adult financial life by paying bills, opening “mail”, paying interest on loans, and making money! This was a favorite game for me when I was a kid.
Other Games
- Prime Climb and Clumsy Thief are two games that I haven’t bought yet, but they’re on my wishlist because they have great reviews. Of course, you don’t need to spend a lot of money on games. Use what you have at home!
Solve Problems on a Dry-Erase Board
For some reason that I cannot explain, my child does not mind doing math problems on this medium size dry-erase board that we can bring anywhere in the house. It’s also great for doodling, mom’s reminder lists, etc. We use this almost every day.
Use Hands-On Manipulatives
- A simple abacus is always fun to use when working on problems.
- These math cube blocks are great for adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and even showing fractions. These connecting blocks come in different colors and in groups of 10. Great for hands that need to stay busy, and great for having a hands-on visual for math problems. My son also just liked playing with these just for fun.
Math Wrap-Ups
A friend of mine introduced these to us, and we love them! Math Wrap-Ups are a hands-on way to go over math facts. They can turn it around and see if they got the answers right or wrong, so it’s something they can check on their own!
We started with the subtraction and multiplication ones, and since we used them so much I went ahead and bought the fraction and division wrap-ups as well. It’s a great way to practice math facts in a fun, hands-on way instead of using a workbook.
Real-Life Math Questions and Answers
My kiddo is practical and shows more interest when math is applied to real-life scenarios. Coming up with your own real-life math problems can make math come alive and kids can see how math is useful in everyday life.
Here are some other random examples we came up with:
- If you want to buy this Lego set, how much more money do you need to save?
- How old will you be in the year 2050?
- How old will Mommy be when you are 30?
- If Captain America was born in 1925, how old would he be now?
- When we decided to rearrange the furniture in the basement, we measured everything and mapped it out on graph paper. It was a fun, hands-on way to learn about measurement and area.
These are random math problems, but real questions that we had that we solved together. Find something that your child is interested in and figure out a way how to use math in a practical way. We use math in our everyday lives: cooking, remodeling, budgeting, and measuring. Include your kids in the process and ask questions.
I recently came across this website Bedtime Math which has fun and interesting math word problems in a short story form, great for early elementary if you need some inspiration.
Fractions with Play-Doh, or Food!
We introduced fractions with Play-Doh. Make big circles, cut ‘em up in pieces, and learn all about fractions! Easy, cheap, and fun! Baking cookies and pies and introducing fractions with yummy treats would be even more fun!
Use Videos and Crafts!
We found some skip counting videos on YouTube and then did a little hands-on activity with them. Skip counting is a great primer for multiplication and division practice.
- One activity was cutting out a large number on construction paper, like the number 8, and then writing in the multiples of eight 8, 16, 24, etc.
- Another one we did was lacing plates, a Pinterest idea. We wrote the numbers around a paper plate and then laced them around in a circle with yarn. A friend of mine suggested skip-counting as a primer for multiplication. Sewing and math in one!
If you’re looking for some hands-on printables to practice skip counting and multiplication, you can find these in the LifeandLogic Etsy store. You could also laminate these to use over and over.
Read Math Books
I never really thought of reading books about math until I started researching fun ways to learn math. I’ve found reading math books is especially helpful for introducing new concepts. So far, we’ve read books on fractions, decimals, triangles, multiplication, and the fibonacci sequence.
Some books are story books and others are more informational. For kids that struggle with math or are more literary in nature, reading math books can be a life-saver. For some kiddos, curling up and reading together about math makes it more fun and relational, and it can be a nice break from working on problems.
Read “Let’s Play Math” by Denise Gaskins
When it came to math, I felt a bit lost in what would be the best way to teach it. I knew there must be a way to make it fun, hands-on and interesting. Unfortunately, my elementary math schooling was uninteresting so I didn’t have a firm grasp on hands-on and interesting ways to teach math as a homeschooler.
I recently came across the book, Let’s Play Math by Denise Gaskins, and it was exactly was I needed. Maybe you didn’t really get math in school, maybe you’re scared of it. Maybe your kiddo is rebelling against math workbooks. Then definitely give this book a read. She has so many awesome ideas for hands-on math projects, games, math book recommendation for kids and adults, online resources, and much more.
She also has a website that is worth perusing, and other books with more math inspiration and ideas.
Read Next: 11 Ideas to Make Writing Fun!
Play an Instrument
Research shows that kids who play an instrument have a better grasp of math and have stronger neural connections between the two brain hemispheres. When I took a college calculus class in high school, every kid in that class knew how to play a stringed instrument minus one. It was an interesting observation!
I still buy a math curriculum workbook just to see what we should be learning and to give me ideas on what to teach. Then, I try to think about ways to teach the concepts with hands-on activities.
Some (or even most) kids absolutely need to move to learn. There are a million ways to teach math without worksheets, it’s just a matter of thinking outside the box and getting creative. This doesn’t come naturally to me, but with the help of the internet, I’ve learned that there are so many hands-on and creative ways to learn math. I’m not opposed to workbooks, but learning can be so much more fun and hands-on than just solely using workbooks and worksheets!
What are some of your ideas to teach math without worksheets, and make it fun and hands-on?
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- How to Make Writing Fun!
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- 10 Ways to Foster a Love of Reading in Your Child
- Sassy Responses to the “What About Socialization?” Question
Check out the LifeandLogic Etsy shop for homeschool unit studies, planning pages, and handwriting practice sheets.
The Math Wrap Ups is bar none a creative way of practicing arithmetic! I’m impressed! Saving this resourceful post for when I have kiddos of mine own 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
As a homeschooler myself, I found these ideas very useful! Thanks for sharing them 🙂
I love the real-life examples option. As someone who now does financial reports, I do wish I had practiced math a little more when I was younger.
This is so great! I wish I had these ideas when I was in school. It would have made math easier for me to understand. Great post!