Set aside some time every day to play board games, card games or dice games with your child. According to a study by Robert S. Siegler, professor of cognitive psychology at the Carnegie Mellon University, playing board games can help improve pre-kindergarteners' math skills. Play games such as Snakes and Ladders, Go Fish and Crazy 8's that help your child learn and use numbers even as she is having fun.
Create simple games using dice. Collect two or three dice, roll them and get your child to add the number of dots he sees on the top surface. With an older child, use a pen and paper to list out all possible combinations in which the dice can roll, and use this to explain probability.
Teach your child to play strategy games such as chess. This will impart skills in logic, reasoning and sequential thinking -- all of which are necessary in the study of math. Explain the basic rules of the game, and get her to make simple moves to reinforce understanding. Present her with a scenario, and ask her to come up with the right move. For example, place your Bishop diagonally adjacent to her Queen, and ask what will happen next.
Browse Internet websites such as Dr. Mike's Math Games and Math Playground that have interactive math games. Sit with your child as he plays the games, and explain things he does not understand. Take turns at playing the game, and show him you enjoy the process, too. This will send the unspoken message that math can be fun.
Create games of your own that provide your child with opportunities to apply her knowledge of math. For example, when you are traveling, make a game of finding a vehicle with a license plate number where the digits add or multiply to give a specific number.
Use role-play activities to improve your child's math skills in relation to money. Pretend you are a shopper and your child is a cashier at a grocery store. Get him to write out a list of the items you bought, and add up their costs. With older children, say you are buying multiple numbers of the same item, to get them to practice multiplication. Give the "cashier" some plastic money, and ask him to return the change.