Take time to practice math facts with your child. While chauffeuring your children to sports practice or even during the daily commute to school, have your them write down license plate numbers of the cars passing by. Remove the letters and compare who has the largest number from his or her license plate among the children in the carpool. You can modify this license plate game by having the children add up the total of their license plate number, substituting A for 1, B for 2, and so on.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human services, children spend about 1.5 hours in front of the computer screen each day. This is a good opportunity to practice math facts online. Online math games offer a variety of interactive math games that test children's abilities and reinforce concepts according to grade and skill level. Students will have the freedom to select what interests them, and parents can be assured that their children are learning and remembering important math skills. Websites like Funbrain.com and Mathwire.com offer a variety of math races, puzzles and problems that are free and easy to use.
Another way to interest children in learning their math facts is to apply math concepts to real-life situations, such as grocery shopping. To play grocery store bingo, cut out squares from grocery fliers and paste it onto a piece of paper folded into 16 squares. Take the homemade bingo cards the next time you're in the grocery store with your children, and mark off each sale sign you see on the bingo card with a marker. The first person to get four squares in a row, or bingo, wins. Parents can also introduce the math of measuring while baking or the concept of time while traveling long distances.
Open up your daily newspaper, and you'll be able to find a variety of puzzles and games that your children can use to practice their math facts. Sudoku, a numbers-based puzzle game, tests your child's mathematically logic, which could aid them in connecting and remembering concepts. You can use colorful newspaper advertisements that feature brands and companies your child recognizes to practice math concepts. Parents can modify the difficulty level of these practice games and puzzles according to the ability level of their child.