Creating a Culture of Math: Toys and Games

Children are naturally interested in the things that surround them, especially when those things are being used by Mom and Dad.  We'll address tools that adults use to go about daily life in subsequent posts, but in this post, let's consider things that children have free access to.  Children love toys.  While it may be true that they don't need many or complicated toys, what they have access to, they will play with and learn about.  Math may or may not come naturally to a particular child, but toys made available give them opportunity to explore and speak to what their family culture values.

Ages 0 - 3:  At this age, we are looking at toys that won't be choking hazards.    Shape sorters and blocks are easy to find at any toy store.  Several manufacturers make large wooden abacuses that are suitable for young children.  Small plastic rulers, if the edges aren't sharp, are fun for young children to look at and feel, particularly if they see adults around them using rulers.   Children of all ages enjoy tossing around geometric solids folded from heavy paper, if you enjoy making that sort of thing (and don't mind if they get crushed occasionally ... or often...).  Math Is Fun supplies free templates you can print out to fold.  I even know some kids who have a stuffed PI symbol.  Okay, they are my kids.  And I sewed it myself.  But why not, right?  They like stuffed animals.  Here is another way to enjoy math together.

Preschoolers:  Now, children are beginning to explore numbers and measurement.  Melissa and Doug sells a wooden shape sorter clock.    Even better would be an old clock face and hands, or a watch that your child can adjust on their own.  The abacus and geometric solids continue to be fun.  Soft measuring tapes can be found at any place that sells sewing notions.  Protractors and rulers all children to measure the things around them with conventional tools.  To explore fractions, you can make a set of "pies" to play with.  Integer beans are beans (lima beans work well) painted on one side; they have a positive value on one side and a negative value on the other.  Geoboards and elastic bands are fun to use to make rectangles, squares, trapezoids, parallelograms, circles, houses, birds, and whatever else you might think of.  At this age, your child might become interested in board and card games.  Try offering Snakes & Ladders, Monopoly Junior, Go Fish, or Checkers.  Plastic counters are also versatile.  Having them in several sizes allows "trading up" as your child encounters the idea of grouping.  Of course having real coins is also fun, but you might be more comfortable letting your child have 100 counters than 100 loonies.  Pattern blocks and tangrams, kitchen timers, plastic measuring cups, measuring spoons, dice, dominoes, and balance scales are all fun to play with at this age and on up into elementary school age.

Rather than having a special place for 'math toys,' mix them in with  other toys your children play with.  Let them play with them in 'non-mathy' ways and get creative with them.  Also consider rotating two to three sets of toys.  Children love rediscovering toys they haven't seen for months!

School-aged and up:  All the toys from the preschool years continue to be fun for kids who are interested in mathematical ideas.  They may also become interested in puzzles, either jigsaw or logic.  Books of math games (more about books coming up in the series) may give your family many ideas for math fun.  Card games like Rummy and Cribbage are fun and full of math.  So are board games like Monopoly, Othello, Go, and Chess.  Try playing Chinese Checkers with the advanced rules of multiple jumps and symmetrical jumps (you can move 5 spaces beyond a pivot marble if there are 5 empty spaces to it from your marble).  Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe is a version that requires greater logic and strategy than the original.  Physical logic puzzles like mind benders and Rubik's Cubes may also become interesting at this age.

Getting the whole family involved in playing games is a very strong way to contribute to a math culture.  Whether you are all playing together, just a couple of you pull out a deck of cards, or somebody wants to work through a puzzle on their own, the main thing is to have a good time, keep things positive, and enjoy the challenge.

Websites for more cool math toys and games:

http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/index.html - ice moulds, wooden geometric solids, puzzles, all sorts of fun things.
http://geometrytoys.com/ - as the name implies, geometry toys.
http://love2learn2day.blogspot.ca/p/math-gifts-games.html - a list of links to math fun.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/brain/whereisit.cgi?t=math - Who doesn't love Think Geek for all things geeky?