By Mathnasium of Dundas | Added Sep. 16, 2023
The traditional classic board games are a great fun way to practice mental math araound the house and cottage. Here are a few ideas to leverage the natural capacity of these games even more.
Junior race games: Sorry!, Pacheesi, etc:
Demonstrate, and have your child practice, skip-counting by twos and threes when moving. This is great reinforcement of the techniques we teach in-centre as foundation for Add/Sub Numeric Fluency. It's also a gentle introduction to our Reasoning in Groups prelude to multiplication fact fluency, based on being able to: Count from any number, by any number, to any number.
Finance Games: Monopoly, Life, Careers, etc.:
Assign your child to be Banker. Making change is great reinforcement for the key Numeric Fluency skills of:
Square-board games: Monopoly, Careers, etc.:
The square board of these games, 10x10 for Monopoly and 8x8 for Careers, provides an opportunity to practice several pillars of Add/Sub Numeric Fluency by visualizing the landing square, without counting around the board one square at a time:
Senior race games: Cribbage, Backgammon, etc.
All of the above, and more, gets exercised in these games as players exercise the clear and logical thinking required to build a winning strategy.
All this, for free, on top of the social bonding that occurs around a table, with tangiible pieces and the company of family and friends, practicing the grace of winning and losing in a sportsmanlike manner.
Students! On Saturday, October 7, we are hosting Kids' Corner at the Waterdown Farmers' Market, in the Legion parking lot.
