Math can be a lot of fun, and the younger kids learn this, the better their chances of doing well in math throughout their school career! Here are some of our absolute favorite math games for kids of all ages.Â
The Very Best Math Games for Kids
What You'll Find on This Page
Spot It is a game that even two-year-old Anna can play! We amend the rules with her playing, so that we take turns finding the match rather than racing to find it. The three older kids hold their own without this amendment, though!
The kids fell in love with The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game at a friend’s house in Massachusetts while we were out there visiting earlier this month. This simple matching game happens to be very charmingly designed.
We discovered Sum Swamp via my daughter Emma’s first grade classroom. She loved it so much that Johnny saved up his own money and bought a copy for us to play. My five-year-old and seven-year-old still adore this game, and Emma still plays occasionally even although at age nine it is getting quite easy for her.
We discovered Prime Climb via my mom, who supported it while it was a Kickstarter project! She sent us our copy of the game, and Mike and I play it quite a bit. The kids also enjoy it, although five-year-old Lily especially needs a fair bit of help to play. The color coding design is brilliant for including younger players.
Rummikub was one of my favorite games as a child! Luckily my kids enjoy it as well. The plastic tiles lend a nice sensory activity, and the luck element can even out the playing field for different ability levels. 
Playing Blokus by the rules is an excellent mathematical exercise. My kids rarely do this, but they learn a lot about geometry by arranging the tiles to create beautiful images on the board!
I adore Q-bitz Extreme, and my kids do too. This game builds spacial awareness skills and pattern recognition.
Qwirkle is a fun patterning game, and another one where my kids frequently use the pieces to create interesting mosaics rather than playing by the rules. Building mosaics also builds math skills!
Know of a Game We Should Try?
I always think of our family as not owning board games. Pulling this post together I realized that we have quite a few; it’s just that they are nearly all math games! What board games – math themed or not – does your family love? Drop me a note on my Facebook Page, or via email at mamasmilesblog at gmail dot com.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
We own and enjoy a few of these, and now I’m very curious about Prime Climb – so cool your mum supported its kickstarter! :) The games that receive the most play at our house include: Rivers, Roads & Rails, Waterworks, and the Settlers of Catan, Risk, Boggle, Ticket to Ride, Triominoes, Scrabble, UNO, Bang!, and magnetic Chess, Backgammon, and Checkers
These are all great picks!
Hmmm…. Math game…. I’ll pick Dominion, it’s as much of a math game as any of the ones you named because it does involve a lot of math as you add up actions, buys, and gold, but it’s not primarily a math game (which I wouldn’t have classified many of those as math games in my head some of them fit different categories).
But one that I’ve always thought of as a math game is the Allowance Game, my kids love that one, and pull it out from time to time.
The Allowance Game is great too!
I’ve never played Sum Swamp or Prime Club but the others are Fabulous choices!
I think you would enjoy Prime Climb!
I keep looking at Q-bitz, but we have SO many games already :) A lot of our favorites on your list. My personal favorite is Rummikub, because I like games that have both strategy and luck.
Do you have Prime Climb? I think you would enjoy that one as well :)
I’ve had my eye on the Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game for awhile now, since I think both my 3 and 5 year olds would enjoy it. I finally ordered it. $13 is a great price! Thanks for this list. I’ll definitely refer back to it as my kids get older.
I love this post – we have just been sorting out our family board games to take on holiday with us and most of them are math(s) based too! Thanks again for joining in with #CoolMaths4CoolKids
These are all new to me MaryAnne! Thanks for sharing them. I imagine they’d make great gifts too, as I’m always on the lookout for cool toys to give to other kids that are also educational.