Road-trip Math: License Plates & Signs

Jul 26, 2018 | La Jolla

It's roadtrip season! At Mathnasium, we don’t want math to be scary—we want it to be fun! Incorporating math games into your daily commute is a fantastic way to keep kids’ skills sharp and make the subject less intimidating. You don’t need any special equipment either, just a paper and pencil at most. Here’s one game to try with your child:

Ages 3-5: Identify as many different numbers on license plate and signs as possible.
Ages 6-8: Add up all the digits on a license plate or sign.
Ages 9-12: Pick any target number under 50. Use other numbers on license plates or signs to get to the target number. You can use any operation (adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing). For example, if you pick the number 44, and they see the numbers eight, nine, and four on a sign, they could say: 4 x 9= 36 +8 =44. Choose a new number after successfully getting three ways to make the chosen number.
Ages 12+: Same activity as ages 9-12 but chose a higher target number and let them use the other numbers as exponents. For example, to make the number 150 they might say 82 + 86.