Online math games are a fun way to add variety into a living math approach. They can be used as rewards, review, or even an introduction to a new concept, depending on the game. Here are ten of the best math game sites for homeschoolers, arranged in no particular order.

1. Math Game Time

Math Game Time has games for preK to seventh grade. Besides being arranged by grade, games are also arranged in a convenient list of skills such as fractions, probability, multiplication, etc. The games are fairly simple in their layout but do provide an engaging format for practicing what might be boring on a worksheet.

2.  MangaHigh.com

Magna High has over a dozen very attractive math games. I started playing and couldn’t stop!  To get full versions, a teacher is supposed to sign up a “school.” It appears that signing up a homeschool is accaptable, and there is no cost. But the free game I sampled was pretty impressive.

Mousing over the games on the home page will show you what math skills are used in the game.

3.  Funbrain.com

Funbrain includes a math arcade among other academic subjects. Games are also arranged by grade level K-8.

4. Number Nut

Number nut activities are really online quizzes instead of real games. The site is easy to navigate with lots of math skills featured. The home page outlines all the main topics very clearly.

5.  Toy Theater

Among other subjects, Toy Theater has a math category. The games are very attractive but graphically simple. All of the games deal with basic math skills for the youngest of learners — less than and greater than, matching, counting, and patterns.

6. Multiplication.com

Games are one feature of the entire system of teaching multiplication offered at Multiplication.com. The games all center around memorizing the multiplication tables, so they are not arranged any other way than my theme. However, you can select a single math problem and get games that cover it. (It would be nice if you could select multiple problems, but that is not an option.)

7. Illuminations

Illuminations is an educational (not commercial) site, so there are no ads. And there is an emphasis on learning rather than on fun or style. The games are truly online exercises, but there is a wealth to choose from, including advanced topics for high schoolers.

Games are divided into four broad grade groupings: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Before selecting a game, you are shown a screenshot, a title, and a short blurb about the math skills in the game.

8. Math is Fun

The home page of Math is Fun is divided by concept and leads to textbook like information. There are some games, but the most valuable part of the site is probably the multiplication drill activities that help a child memorize through repeated exposure.

9. Hooda Math

The games on this site are fairly well done and cover a good range of math skills. Games are divided into three broad categories:  logic, arithmetic, and geometry, so it’s fairy easy to find a game for whatever topic you need.

10. Arcademic Skill Builders

On this site, the games are neatly organized along a yellow horizontal strip:  Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Integers, Decimals, Money, Fractions, Time and other non-math topics.

The games are moderately engaging and do a good job of focusing on the math skills being reviewed or taught.

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It’s confirmed. I like Life of Fred.

Life of Fred (LOF) is a living math book. It’s actually got a narrative story with math woven in. There are practice problems in the book (and answers), but it’s nothing like a math textbook I’ve ever seen. We are using Life of Fred – Fractions, and my review here is based on that one title.

At the end of each of the 32 chapters is a set of ten (or fewer) questions. Between every four or five chapters, there is a Bridge with ten review problems. After completing 90% correctly, you can move on to the next chapters. But there are five different versions of the Bridge. So you get five tries to get it right.

What I like:

• The story is hilarious. Really. It made me literally laugh out loud. So much so that Sprite came and asked what was so funny. While Al & Gebra is corny (read more here), Fred is witty. I much prefer Fred.
• I appreciate the author’s style. Although the book is unapologetically a math book, the author weaves in other interesting facts — meanings of words, poetic devices, etc. It’s a book that uses your entire brain, not just the math part of it.
• The math is in the context of real (albeit very silly) situations.
• The math is concept-rich. Each set of problems has a variety of concepts. And there is review built into the problems too.
• Many of the problems are those tricky multiple step ones where you’re getting a two- (or three) in-one deal.

What Sprite likes:

• The math is “sneaky,” hidden in the story.
• There are only a handful of problems.
• You get several chances at the Bridge.

So how did we get to Life of Fred? Actually, I first wrote this post in April of 2010. But we put LOF aside and are just now coming back to it. Here is the timeline for those who are wanting the nitty gritty of our math studies.

We had studied fractions quite a bit with hands-on activities up to three years ago. Then we tackled some other math topics such as positive and negative numbers. Then we came back to fractions and worked through plenty of exercises in Sprite’s Singapore Math books. All the hands-on activities were invaluable for her. That foundation served her really, really well when it came time to add, subtract, and multiply fractions on paper.

I felt like fractions was “done.” So my natural tendency was to rush on to a new topic, to get another area of the Singapore textbook marked off as complete. But I kept wondering if that was the right thing to do. Was getting through the list of topics my ultimate goal? No, not really.

So I got some input from the expert.  [grin]  I gave Sprite the choice. We could either move on to decimals (a brand new topic) or work on Life of Fred Fractions. She chose Fred. And my decision was made for me!

We did a few chapters of LOF; I wrote this original blog post. Then the frustration began to set in, so I had Sprite put LOF aside. It was about that time that we switched to Teaching Textbooks math curriculum. Sprite worked through the grade 5 material quickly (in her 6th grade year) since much of it was review.  We had a big move, so math, and all of homeschool, was put on the back burner for a while.

When we resumed school, Sprite finished up TT5, and moved on to TT6. She has done a few chapters with fractions in TT6, so I pulled out Fred for another try. Sprite admits that it is challenging, especially the way many of the problems are multi-step, but she is not as frustrated as she was a year ago. So the plan is to finish Fred Fractions before wrapping up TT6.

According to the author, the Fractions and Decimals & Percents books prepare a child for beginning Algebra. We will see how it works to prepare Sprite.  She is reading one chapter each day. I bought Life of Fred at Rainbow Resource.

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Math Notebooking X5

I am a firm believer in the saying, “Variety is the spice of life.” Although I love routine and structure, I  dislike falling into academic ruts. There is really no reason to have boring homeschool lessons. There is so much out there to learn and a limitless number of ways to learn. If lessons are boring, it’s because we are getting lazy.

When math falls into a rut of “read the textbook, do the workbook exercises, rinse, and repeat,” it may be time to implement some math lesson CPR.

Create the Problems

Instead of doing the workbook problems, have your child create his own problems based on the math lesson. Writing a good math problem is actually quite difficult. Of course, he will have to solve his problem so that he can test you with it.

The problems could be word problems or numeric problems. Silliness is very encouraged in word problems. (Math does not need to be boring. If some humor makes it more fun, then encourage that.)

If you see that your child’s problems are all very simple and do not incorporate all that you learned, you can point that out with some probing questions, “I notice that all your problems…. Why did you do that?” Then remind your child of tougher problems to use and encourage her to add on a few “extra credit,” challenging ones.

Math Journaling

Write about your math lessons. Use words in sentence and paragraph form to explain the math topic of the day. Diagrams and illustrations are great additions to a math journal page. But try to avoid numbers as much as possible.

Using words to do math accesses another part of the brain and offers a real mental workout. For children who love words more than numbers, math notebooking may be a real relief.

Read a Living Math Book

There are so many great living math books to enjoy. Don’t discount picture books because you think your child is too old. All the picture books I’ve seen about math have been far from childish. On the contrary, the pictures are wonderful aids to help us visualize the concepts.

Don’t worry if you can’t find a living math book to fit the exact math topic your child is working on. You will either be reviewing something he has already studied or introducing something that will come later. Both possibilities are good.

Write a Math Poem

Writing a math poem is a double duty assignment. Check off your language arts and math for the day. Use a prescribed form (haiku, diamonte, or acronym) so that you can focus on the ideas and words.

Read a Biography of a Mathematician

I use the math history lessons from Livingmath.net which take us from ancient history up to modern day mathematicians. It gives children a healthy perspective of math when they realize that math has been discovered incrementally throughout history. Math isn’t just a way to torture people. It is actually a science.

The Mathematicians are People, Too books are great. Each volume has about a dozen short chapters, each covering  a famous mathematician. For more teaching resources, see the Printables for Mathematicians are People, Too.

The beauty of each of these ideas is that you’re taking math beyond the strict realm of “math” and combining it with history and language arts. Encouraging those connections across disciplines is something that helps our children learn to think.

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Why “Piranhas eat mostly decayed antelope skin?” Because “Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally” is just not good enough for the non-conformist, creative child.

She must create her own mnemonic device.

No matter how odd it may be.

On the math front, we are still using Teaching Textbooks (TT) math. Sprite wrapped up level 5 and moved directly into level 6 which is already ¼th complete. (No, we are not “behind.” We are moving at Sprite’s pace.)

We have just finished Unit 2 of LivingMath.net lessons, most recently reading about the invention of decimals, John Napier, Order of Operations, and the googol. We do the computer math (TT) and the math history lessons side by side, and I’ll continue that pattern for next year (7th grade).

The combination makes for a very well-rounded math curriculum, one in which a very creative child can find room for expression.

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Charlotte Mason espoused using concrete objects for math lessons, and I totally agree. I know that Sprite learned math concepts much faster and with more enjoyment when there was a hands-on element (rather than mere numbers on a page). She used math manipulatives all the way into fifth grade, and I admit that we still have some math cubes on the shelf just in case. Also, I made a deliberate effort to keep the math “toys” accessible to her for free play at any time.

When you need a math manipulative right now, these free printable templates can come to your rescue. Although not nearly as sturdy as a purchased wooden or plastic set, paper manipulatives can serve their purpose well.

I recommend this article – How to Make the Most of Math Manipulatives by Marilyn Burns — to help you get the biggest educational value from your hands-on activities. (This article is written from a classroom perspective; so adjust as necessary for the homeschool environment.)

I’ve listed what you can find at each site in case you’re looking for something specific.

1.  Hand Made Manipulative Instructions (html)

• Pattern Blocks
• Base-Ten Blocks
• Base-Five Blocks
• XY-Blocks – Set of X, X2, XY, Y, and Y2 blocks.
• Attribute Blocks
• Rods
• Color Tiles
• Graph Paper

2.  Math Printables for Home (all files in both pdf and doc formats)

• Dot Paper
• Geoboard Paper
• Graphing Paper
• Pattern Blocks Grid
• Hundreds Chart
• Base Ten Blocks
• Place Value Chart
• Nets for 3D shapes
• Pattern Blocks

3.  Houghton Mifflin Math (pdf)

This site has so much it can be overwhelming. Here’s how to navigate to the printable manipulatives: choose a grade level, then Teaching Tools. Repeat this process with various grade levels to find different printable games and hands-on manipulatives. To make it easier, here are the links to each grade.

• grade 1
• grade 2
• grade 3
• grade 4
• grade 5
• grade 6

4.  SEN Teacher (pdf)

• nets (3D models)
• clocks
• number cards
• coin worksheets
• coin cards
• coin fans
• math spinner
• coin dominoes
• volume cubes
• place value cards
• number lines
• graphs

5. Kentucky Center for Mathematics (most files in both pdf and doc formats)

• compass
• hundreds chart
• numeral track
• fraction rulers

6. Donna Young (pdf)

• math paper
• graph paper
• number lines
• money and coins

7. Manipulatives for Upper Elementary– grades 4-6 (most files in both pdf and html formats)

• Geometric Solids
• Base Ten Blocks
• Geoboard
• Colour Tiles
• Addition Mat
• Tangrams
• Pattern Blocks
• Blocks & Cubes
• Isometric Dot Paper

8. Mathematics Enhancement Program (pdf)

• Number Cards
• Number Lines
• Sign Cards
• Shape Cards
• Shape Cards with dots

9.  Printable Math Game Boards (pdf & doc)

• shapes
• addition
• fractions

10.  Game Boards at Jefferson County Schools (ppt & doc)

game boards and card templates for creating your own games

11.  Ellen McHenry’s Basement Workshop (pdf)

printable games for grades 1-5

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I feel like something of a “living math dropout” to admit that Sprite is using Teaching Textbooks now. It’s a computer based program, and she really likes it. Better yet, it’s developing some basic skills that we missed along the way and filling in some of those gaps that we always fear as homeschooling moms.

I’m not too terribly afraid of gaps in general, but with math a gap can really affect a lot of conceptual learning later on. So I’m working to fill in the chinks before we move on towards more algebraic thinking.

A second factor for using this approach is because of a big mistake I made. I had Sprite tested (standardized test — Iowa) early this year. Although her math scores were not bad, she translated the results into, “I am not good at math.” (She tested at low average for her grade level.) It’s been a huge problem for her confidence to be shattered with that test. I regret it terribly.

I guess that my own confidence was shaken a bit as well.

When I met with the consultant to discuss the results, she asked me what curriculum we use for math. I don’t think she’d ever heard of a living math approach. No matter how I tried to explain, she just looked at with confusion and not a small amount of concern.  I started feeling very unsure of myself in that moment.  Was I messing up with math? I admit that after the consultation, I bought some math test prep books at the Scholastic display. I wouldn’t have even considered a need for that before.

So back to Teaching Textbooks. I bought a level based on the TT placement tests, and Sprite is whizzing through it, doing two lessons a day and scoring well. This is working well to build up her confidence, but sometimes I still hear her express that anything less than 100% is “not good.” (What?! I can only  guess that her contact with local kids who are intensely competitive for perfect test scores is creating this delusion.)

So we haven’t done any math games in a long time. No hands-on activities for math. Like I said, I feel like a living math dropout. For now it’s just TT lessons on the computer and in the spiral bound textbook.

We are still doing math history lessons from Livingmath.net’s curriculum, though. That’s the one bright side. And we both really enjoy those lessons.

Of course, I actually am not a living math dropout. I have every intention to get back into my preferred style of hands-on living math exploration. But for a season, TT is working. And in the big picture, TT can be part of our overall living math approach.

My plan is for Sprite to complete Life of Fred Fractions after working through TT. From there I’m not too sure. But I have lots of resources on  my shelf to choose from at that point.

[I bought TT from CBD (affiliate link).]

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illustrated math

I think it was the word illustrate that got Sprite. She sincerely thought this was what the question wanted her to do. And I guess on one level, she actually did follow the directions.

I asked her why a math test would want her to draw faces on the numbers. She agreed, “Yeah, I thought it was strange, but I did what they asked me to do. I illustrated it.”

Yet another reason to take these tests every now and then.

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In our math lessons from livingmath.net, we’re up to the contributions of India and Arabia in the Middle ages, focusing on the number zero and positive and negative numbers.

To make integers more coherent for Sprite, I hunted for some illustrations.  Of course, there is the number line, but here are some real life parallels to positive and negative numbers which we started with:

• thermometer
• timeline
• money — assets and debts
• floors in a building,  above and below the ground floor

Here’s the timeline parallel. I titled this photo Jesus is Zero. Isn’t that mathematically perfect? The printable came from Montessori for Everyone.

Zero is an essential number both in place value and on the number line. I love the part in the poem “Zero” in Math Talk that says, “I’m the origin on the number line.” What an amazing parallel. Numbers, both positive and negative are valued in their relationship to zero. Time itself is measured in relation to the life of Christ. So in that way, Christ is Zero — the center, the origin, the base and foundation.

There is no way we’d get these insights from Singapore Math textbook. Lovin’ living math!

For the thermometer application, we used page 13 from the FREE ebook –Fast Ideas for Busy Teachers, Grade 4.

We read the first three chapters of The Journey of Al & Gebra to the Land of Algebra. This book is a bit hokey. Okay, it’s really hokey. The story is terribly strained to get in the math concepts. BUT, it’s making Sprite laugh at the silliness in it. And the concepts and vocabulary (integers, absolute value) are getting through. So even though I wouldn’t say it qualifies as a true living book, I’m leaving it in our curriculum for now. (The reading for this title is scheduled in our livingmath.net lesson plans.)

We used this Less Than Zero lesson plan that includes a printable game board pictured above plus a link to a very fun online math game that Sprite enjoyed. (Sprite just loves it when I say, “Your math activity is an online game today.”)

Sprite made a notebooking page about the zero in which she told about its history, its importance, and some of its unique characteristics.

Education World has another good game idea for learning about the number line. I adapted the game into a life-sized version.

I asked Sprite to create a life-sized number line so that she could serve as the playing piece. That got her attention! She was filled with anticipation about the game.

I pulled out two numbers from my prepared stack and had Sprite physically move out the problem. The first number was her starting point. Then she had to add the next number.

I saved each combination and had Sprite write down the math problems and answers after she had walked them out across the numberline.

To help her grasp subtracting integers, I told a story which she had to act out on the numberline.

“You had $7 when we went out. You found a totebag that cost $13 and asked me to loan you the extra money to cover it. Now how much money do you have? (Owe $6 / -6.) Then you did the dishes, and I subtracted -$2. How much do you have now?”

And so on with Sprite going into debt and working back out of it in various humorous situations. The sillier the better. It hides the fact that you’re actually learning math.

Here is a notebooking page to go along with this study –Positive and Negative Numbers Notebooking Page (693). Later this week, I’ll have Sprite record what she learned on it.

To be clear, the activities I’ve listed here were not done in on day or even one week. Actually, this study covered about two weeks worth of math instruction although we were working on other concepts as well (parallel and perpendicular lines, to be exact). I have found that with Sprite and math, Charlotte Mason’s advice is perfect — small doses with repetition work much more effectively than long lessons.

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Taking a break from our intense multiplication study, we’ve moved on to a new topic — angles.  With living math, I do use our Singapore textbook. I browse through it to find another topic to study. (grin) Actually, I do have Sprite do a workbook exercise now and then.

Angles was one such topic that we hadn’t touched on this year, and it seemed easy enough to learn in a hands-on approach. (This is the face she wanted on the blog.)

Above and below you can see our most important tools:

1. a home made protractor in 360°
2. an angle maker
3. a store bought protractor

I find that in planning living math activities, I often have to reverse engineer the workbook exercises. I look at the problems and ask myself, “How can I convert this skill or concept into a hands-on or real problem solving activity?” And that’s where these activities came from.

First of all, I knew that the entire concept of degrees was important. Sprite needs to understand what an angle is and that it can be big or little and that the size is measured in degrees.

[The technical terms such as acute and obtuse are not vital at this point, so I didn't use them.  Vocabulary can come later after the concepts are cemented. However, we had already learned about right angles (90°) with Pythagoras, so it was easy to talk about smaller than and larger than a right angle.]

So I had Sprite make a 360° protractor by simply marking degrees on a large circle. (Got to sneak in some x9 facts too — 90°, 180°, 270°, and 360°.)

The angle maker is simply two strips of cardstock connected at one end with a paper fastener. Using these two tools together, we arranged the angle maker in various positions and measured the resulting angle, approximately, with our protractor. We did this for a couple of lessons so that Sprite would get a feel for the sizes of angles — a 20° angle is tiny and a 280° angle is big. A 100 ° angle is a tad larger than a right angle, and so on.

Then come the bits of paper. (It seems we can’t do a math activity without loads of cut up paper.) I used some scrap paper to make circles. I made sure to mark the center with a pen so Sprite could cut out angled sections. Some circles were cut in two pieces, others in three.

Then she measured. First I asked her to estimate visually the degree of angle. Her skill at estimating got better and better. Then I had her use the homemade protractor and then the official one.

I had her label each angle with its measurement. And then we verified the rule that each circle has 360° by adding up the total of the angles. It worked each time!  Of course. But letting a child discover rules rather than dictating them is a halmark of living math.

It all made its way onto a notebooking page.

Next approach — triangles.

I gave Sprite some triangles and asked her what she thought we’d find when we measured the angles and totaled them. She wasn’t sure, but she felt certain it wouldn’t be 360° like the circles.

Oops… she ended up with several triangles whose angles totaled over 180°. She somehow sensed that 181° and 182° must be wrong and that the triangles that were measured at 180° must be correct. It actually was easy enough to go back and remeasure and find her small errors. It ended up that some of our “right angles” were not actually 90°.

We corrected the measurements on the backsides, and put a few sample triangles onto a notebooking page.

Just to be clear, these angle lessons were spread over about a two week period. Interspersed in with these hands-on activities were some workbook exercises and at the end I used this BBC worksheet as an overall wrap up.

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We’re still drilling multiplication facts. (It seems this is going to take a while.) I’m constantly saying out of the blue, “Count by eights!” or “What’s 9 x 7?” It’s as much work for me to remember to review it as it is for Sprite to learn the facts.

This is a book I bought from Amazon –Math Games to Master Basic Skills: Multiplication & Division.  Sure, I could find or make my own bingo charts and times tables cards, but it’s so easy to have it all in a clean format, ready to copy and use.  (I wrote a review for the book at Amazon, so I won’t go into that here.)

This latest lesson was X7 and X9 facts.

• I gave Sprite all the products and had her divide them into two stacks — multiples of 7 and multiples of 9.
• Then I had her order the products and skip count, reading them outloud. She came up with her own variation — reading in a low voice for the smaller numbers, and progressively raising her voice as the numbers got larger. It was quite silly, but anything that makes math fun is okay with me.
• I asked her why 63 could be found in both rows. She nailed it!
• Then I randomly pointed at products and had her tell me the math problem. We discussed the whole 9 x 8 is the same as 8 x 9 issue.
• To top it all off, we played TWO board games from the NC Math site. I laminated them so we could use Vis-a-vis pens to mark our spots instead of using paper markers. Sprite always loves using those pens, and I like to use lots of variety to keep math fun.

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