Operation Challenge builds children's arithmetic and problem-solving skills. It requires numbered cards of at least one through 10 and can include larger numbers for older children. In this game, each child draws five cards. Then one of the children flips over a final card. The number on that card becomes the round's target number. Children race against one another to use all of the numbers on their cards and any combination of the four arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) to arrive at their target number.
Math Pig allows children to practice mental math and to think strategically about probability. The game is played in rounds. In each round, a player rolls two dice as many times as she wants, mentally keeping track of the sum of her rolls. The player can choose to stop rolling at any time and records her sum as her score for that round. However, if the player rolls a one before she stops rolling, she receives zero points for that round and loses her turn. If she rolls a one on both dice, her score for the entire game reverts to zero.
Parents and teachers can use Concentration to teach equivalency. This version of Concentration requires a set of paired cards in which one card has a number on it and the other card has an equation, picture or other value equivalent to the first card's number. For example, a pair could include "16" and "4 squared" or "12" and "9 + 3." Players deal the cards face down and take turns flipping over two cards in an attempt to find equivalent matches. At the end of each player's turn, he puts his cards back face down.
Mystery Cup reinforces children's understanding of volume and equivalent fractions. The game starts with one player filling a glass with an amount of water unknown to the second player. The second player uses measuring cups of different sizes to determine how much water is in the mystery cup. Older children can attempt to stump each other by using uncommon measurements, such as 11/12 of a cup (1/4 and 2/3).
In this game of mental math, players race to reach a sum of 100. The first player begins by picking any number less than 10. Starting with the second player, the two players take turns adding any number up to 10 to the previous round's sum. The goal is to be the player who reaches a sum of exactly 100. Parents and teachers can modify this game by making the target sum larger than 100, allowing players to add more than 10 per round and alternating each round between addition and subtraction.