Math Fact Dice

This is an easy game to play with a set of regular dice for math facts through 6 and with 12-sided dice for math facts through 12. The only other things required are a pad of paper and pencil to keep score.

Players take turns rolling the dice and scoring points by adding, subtracting, or multiplying the numbers face up on the two dice. Dividing doesn’t work evenly most times, but you can use it too, if you want to include rounding up or down as part of the game. The winner of the game is the first person to reach a set goal: 100 points, 500 points, 1000 points.

You can make the game just addition and subtraction for younger children. If you do, you’ll want to stick to a lower winning points goal. When adding multiplication to the mix, children will obviously go for the higher point scores possible with multiplication, but if make it a requirement that they score the point total exactly, they will have to play longer using their addition and subtraction skills to finish that last little bit to the end exactly. Thus, making them practice their multiplication facts even longer as they hope for a 1 x3 or a 2x2, but they get a 7x8. You can also change things up by using three dice and allowing the player to select two dice from his roll to use.

The seven piece dice sets below offer additional permutations on the game. You’ll need two sets, since each set comes with only one of each type of dice.

Opaque 7 piece dice set
Each set comes with a d4, d6, d8, d10 (#0-9), d10 (#00-90), d12, d20 in a clear plastic storage cube.

Available in blue, green, red, yellow, orange, purple, black, white

All dice read from the top for easy comprehension and use underscoring to differentiate 6 and 9. Sharp edges for easy shape recognition. Numbers are as large as possible on each face

Muggins & Knock-Out Wooden Math Games

You can play two games with this math marble board game, Muggins and Knock Out. In Muggins the goal is to score points by placing as many of you own marbles on the board as possible increasing your score by putting marbles on in a sequence. During each turn, a player rolls three dice and places one marble on the board using the three dice in any combination of adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing that arrives at a number with an empty slot on the board, preferably, one that either adds to a run or blocks an opponent’s run. Players are allowed to bluff, but there are penalties if caught and penalties for the accuser if you can prove how you got your number. Twelve-sided dice are included to turn the game into a purely addition/subtraction game for younger children.

In Knock-out, the board has a circle of 18 numbers with marble slots on two sides of each number. The goal is to place your marbles on both sides of any number thus securing it as your number. When you secure five numbers, you win the game. You add marbles to board on your turn by using two or three dice adding the numbers and placing your marble on the board for that number, or removing an opponent’s marble from that number if it has not been secured by two marbles. That’s the simplest way to do things, but in Knock-out you’re allowed to take the total number of the die and break that number down into any combination of numbers that add up to the total. (You can’t use a number twice.) So if you roll a 5 and a 6 you get 11. You can make that 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 or 4 + 2 + 5 or 2 + 3 + 6 or 1 + 10 or any other combination that equals 11. You can then place your marbles on or remove any of your opponent’s marbles from those numbers on the board. There’s an advanced version of the game that uses three dice and includes place value, which really requires a lot of thinking.

Muggins & Knock-Out Wooden Math Games

Math Fish

You can make this card game using index cards or blank playing cards focusing on troublesome math facts or working your way through different math facts by changing your card sets. You can make this game work for addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.

The game plays like Go Fish except that instead of asking for another player’s twos or seven’s, you ask for another player’s cards that equal twelve, requiring the other player to hand over any cards that in his hand that do. The cards are set up as math facts. So if he has in the addition game a 1 + 11 or 2 + 10 or any other addition math fact that equals 12 that you’ve included in the card set for this game, he has to hand them over.

When creating your card sets, you’ll want to come up with twelve numbers that cards will equal. For the addition set, this is easy. Just use 1 through 12. You can then create four cards for each number using any math facts that equal that number or specific math facts that are hard for your child. For beginning students, you might use all the 1+ and 2 + facts, but eliminate them for harder facts as your child’s skills develop. For multiplication, you can make card sets for fact families like all the sevens or all the nines. Or you can mix and match the hard facts or focus on the facts that require several combinations to arrive at a number like 2 x 12 3 x 8 and 4 x 6. By using index cards, you can make as many sets as you want for little cost.

A software version of this game called Roxie’s Math Fish is available as shareware for $9.959. This game has been around for a while, and was a big hit with my youngest daughter who loved Roxie the cat. You can play the addition version of the game with the demo, but must register and pay to play all versions of the game.

Quarter Mile Math

This is a software product that comes on three CDs, which you can buy individually, or as sets of two or three CDs. Level One is for grades K-3. Level Two is for grades 4-6. Level Three is for grades 6-9. Follow the links to see the extensive list of topics covered by each CD. These games cover more than just math facts. Your children can practice topics in fractions, decimals, percents, pre-algebra, and even keyboarding and the alphabet for the youngest children.

To play the game, and it is a game, you must answer the questions set to you as quickly as possible. Parents can determine what questions will be asked progressing to harder math as students develop skills. The screen shows a racetrack either a horse or a car track with six lanes. The first lane belongs to the student. The computer runs the other lanes. By answering questions correctly the student move his horse or car forward. A correct answer speeds up the horse. The goal is to cross the finish line before the other horses or cars do. The software tracks and uses your own best times in a particular game as your competitors once you’ve played enough times to generate five scores. Before that, the computer uses slow opponents, so that the new player will always win the game initially. Whether he beats his own times later on is up to him, spurring a player to get faster and faster. This also allows players to go as slowly as they need to initially since the software waits for the correct answer thus avoiding discouragement by players who are struggling. The ability to select the math facts or problem types used also allows parents to let students play games they are good at while also playing games that test their abilities.

Quarter Mile Math is available from Education Max: Quarter Mile Math.

Math Facts on the Go

An easy place to practice math facts is your car when you’re stuck in traffic or on the way to all those many places homeschoolers seem to go. Mom or an older sibling calls out a problem 9 +7 or 9 x 7, and the children must answer as quickly as possible. Of course, there may have to be instructions or rules created for allowing the one who’s actually learning addition facts to have the opportunity to get some right answers. Older siblings can be the judge for whether the answer is right or wrong.