Puzzles — Blog — Games for Young Minds

The Best Math Games for Your Third Grader

It feels like 3rd grade is where the rubber meets the road for a lot of kids. We all remember the brutal timed multiplication tests that were foisted on us as kids, and we'd rather our own kids not feel stressed about learning that vital mathematical concept.

These games, hopefully, will give your kids a chance to think and strategize about multiplication in a way that helps them build true fluency, not just speed. And I've included a couple of non-multiplication games that are also great for 3rd graders to play.

You can always check out my recommendations for earlier ages at these links:

Now, on to 3rd grade!

Free Games, Board Games, PuzzlesKent HainesApril 29, 2021Comment

The Best Math Games for Your Pre-Schooler

It happened so slowly.

In the fall of 2017, I sent my very first Games for Young Minds newsletter. I had set up a website to act as an archive of my old newsletters, and each week I added a new post.

And the archive got longer, and longer, and longer...

Now I have over 100 games in my archive with no clear way to navigate them! I am thinking about how to fix that, but in the meantime I figured the least I could do is collect some of my favorite games and toys for each grade level.

This week, I'll share some recommendations for pre-schoolers. Each subsequent week, I'll cover the next grade until we hit middle school!

Board Games, Books, Free Games, PuzzlesKent HainesMarch 18, 2021Pre-schoolComment

The Genius Square

I have a (not so) secret: at least half the games I recommend, I found out about on Twitter.

I've used Twitter as a way to learn about math, teaching, and games for almost a decade now, and it's still my favorite place to get new ideas for math games, fun puzzles, and great classroom activities.

Yes, Twitter is an awful website that is probably bad for our society, but my little section over here with the games is really fun.

Today's recommendation came to me from Heidi Fessenden, who is a math coach and teacher in Massachusetts. Heidi has shared a ton of fun stuff with me over the years, so when she told me about this game I ordered it immediately.

The game is called The Genius Square.

Board Games, PuzzlesKent HainesFebruary 4, 2021Comment

Bad Calculators

Little kids love playing with calculators.

My toddler Dalia, for example, loves nothing more than grabbing my calculators, along with anything else with buttons, and mashing them to see what happens. Adorably, she refers to her collection of button-based toys as "my growmups," as in "Daddy, these is my growmups"

My older kids like plying with them too, though. My eight-year-old is always trying to figure out what each button does, while my five-year-old tries to type in massive numbers and then say them out loud, proudly and incorrectly.

I was reminded of this by Michael Pershan, who gave me two great recommendations: First, get a big calculator with fun buttons and keep it in the car. You never know what discoveries your kids might make on the way to school!

Secondly, grab a laptop and get them to play Bad Calculators.

Free Games, Digital Games, PuzzlesKent HainesJanuary 14, 2021Comment

Killer Sudoku

Last week was... stressful! While I waited with the rest of the country as the country took an entire week to open Schrodinger's box, I found the strangest way to calm down: watching these two delightful British men solve absurd sudoku puzzles on Youtube.

I know, that sounds crazy, right? But seriously, check this video out - it's the one that got me hooked. I found it from a Twitter friend, and 20 minutes later I was cheering like the crowd in Rudy, watching a man place numbers in a 9x9 grid.

Free Games, Other Activities, PuzzlesKent HainesNovember 12, 2020Comment

The Hexagon Challenge

First of all, thank you to everyone for the kind words in my inbox! I heard from dozens of parents and teachers who are looking for all sorts of games for classrooms and kids at home. I have a bunch of ideas based on your requests!

This week's game is from one of my go-to math educators, Christopher Danielson. You may remember him from such hits as the How Many? book, the Which One Doesn't Belong? book, the Number Scavenger Hunt game, and all sorts of other wonderful ideas from the website Talking Math With Your Kids.

This game is called The Hexagon Challenge.

Other Activities, PuzzlesKent HainesSeptember 24, 2020Comment

6 Free Addition and Subtraction Games!

Ok, so first the bad news:

Child care here at the Haines household is going to get more complicated for the next week or two. Meanwhile, online teaching at my university is really in full swing. So I don't know that I'll be able to get a newsletter out as often this week.

So I better make this a good one! Below you'll find a bunch of really fun addition and subtraction games for different age bands. I broke them into grade levels, but those designations are somewhat arbitrary. So if the game sounds fun, try it with your kids!

Puzzles, Free GamesKent HainesMarch 31, 2020 Comment

Math for Love Lessons

In just a minute I'm going to share an amazing set of lessons from Math for Love. But first, a bit of a rant.

This has been a weird and, for many of us, terrible week or two. Please don't focus on all the ways in which you are "falling short" in helping your kids with homeschooling. There are things that schools can do that you simply don't have the time, experience, and supplies to achieve.

BUT ALSO

There is so much you can do at home that a school simply cannot do. You can give your kids tons of individual attention. You can turn lectures into conversations. You can follow their interests and take a wild left turn into anything they want to learn about!

And most importantly, you can have fun spending time with your kids. In fact, that's the most important thing any of us can be doing right now. We might be cooped up with our kids for a long time, and it's going to be easier if those kids still like seeing us in the morning. Even if that means that the (hastily assembled) packet of worksheets from your kids' school doesn't get finished on time.

Ok, rant over. If you remain unconvinced, I have good news - I'm about to share a bunch of lessons that you can try out with your kids.

But I reserve the right to rant again next week...

Other Activities, Free Games, PuzzlesKent HainesMarch 27, 2020Comment

Skyscrapers

This week's game is a combination of two of my favorite elements of a game.

First of all, you play with physical, tactile objects that you must analyze with 3-d spatial reasoning.

And secondly, the game is totally free!

The game is called Skyscrapers.

Puzzles, Free GamesKent HainesJanuary 9, 2020 Comment

Brain Cheeser

This week's game is a recommendation from one of my colleagues at UAB. He's a real-deal mathematician, so when he sent me the link and told me that "some of the puzzles are quite challenging" I got a little scared.

But as it turns out, this puzzle game is extremely approachable! My almost-5-year-old daughter can solve some of the first puzzles, while my son is stuck at around the midpoint of the puzzles. Personally, I'm about 3/4 of the way through, and man... my coworker wasn't kidding.

So no matter how old your kids are, they'll definitely find puzzles in this game that are right in the sweet spot of challenging, but not impossible, to solve. And the game is magnetic, which makes it a perfect diversion for any holiday-related car or plane rides.

The game is called Brain Cheeser.

Puzzles, Board GamesKent HainesDecember 19, 2019Comment

Manifold - An Origami Puzzle Game

I picked up Manifold at a game shop shortly before a flight I took recently. It turned out to be one of the most addictive puzzle games I've ever played. As soon as I solved one puzzle, I stuffed it in the front pocket of my backpack and tore off the next one.

By the time the plane landed, my backpack was practically brimming with folded puzzles. I had solved over half the puzzles and was feeling very accomplished (I had to skip #39, but I don't want to talk about it and I'm not mad.)

This game is aimed at older kids (10+) than most of the games I review for this newsletter. It's also one of the most engaging and unique puzzle-solving experiences I've ever had. I simply had to share it with you.

Board Games, PuzzlesKent HainesJune 26, 2018Comment

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