Maths Games with Bad Drawings

The author of this book, Ben Orlin, is a genius - I only wish I had this around when I was a kid and hating Maths. Ben explains Maths concepts in playful ways that actually makes Maths fun (no really, Maths can actually be fun).

Our oldest, who was 7 at the time when we introduced him to the book, found the games easy understand and got a huge amount of enjoyment out of them.

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Maths Games with Bad Drawings: The Ultimate Game Edition

Maths Games with Bad Drawings is so good, it features on our list twice. This time, it’s the Game Edition that features. We take this out and about with us - it includes wipe off game boards, playing pieces and a book of 34 games including the brilliantly named “Splatter Sprouts.”

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Prime Climb

There’s something really aesthetically pleasing about the Prime Climb board game. Use addition, subtraction, multiplication or division to move up the board - there’s a huge amount of strategy involved and we definitely advise this for older children (8+ with some supervision, although the recommended age is 10+)

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Turing Tumble

Turing Tumble is a game where you build a mechanical computer powered by marbles, solving puzzles as you go. It comes with a beautifully illustrated comic book containing the puzzles and teaches basic programming concepts - but via marbles! It can require adult supervision at times to help solve the trickier puzzles (though the comic book does include the answers at the back). There’s a huge amount of satisfaction from the sound of the marbles working their way down the board through the intricate paths that you’ve build. Kept our oldest occupied for hours (and us - it’s incredible addictive for adults) and is a toy that he keeps returning to.

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Monopoly

If you avoid Junior Monopoly, the original Monopoly is a great way for kids to happily practice addition and subtraction

• both of our children would happily sit and play for an hour, all the while inadvertently practising core Maths skills (the fools! They don’t know they’re learning!).

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Chess

If your kids show an interest in Chess, it’s an incredible game to help develop analytical and creating thinking. The benefits of chess are endless - if there’s demand for it, we may include a resource guide just for chess, as it’s something that has become an obsession for our oldest!

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