Mathsy Things Your Kids Will Love (even if they don’t like maths!)

Even if your kids don’t think they like maths, they will love these interesting and cool maths activities, videos and ideas. In fact they’ll have so much fun with these maths activities they won’t even know they are doing maths and learning!

My boys are both quite ‘mathsy’. They love playing around with numbers, and maths concepts, and are quite keen to explore maths based ideas and activities.

My girls are more like me, we find numbers a little challenging, and because of that they think they don’t like maths, but actually they enjoy loads of mathsy things too.

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Whether you are encouraging your child’s interest in maths, helping with maths homework, or looking for help with homeschool math for struggling students, trying some of these fun maths activities for kids will help your kids enjoy maths rather than hate it!

Cool Maths Activities and Ideas for Kids

So even if your kids think they don’t like maths, give one of these cool maths ideas a go, and see what happens.

Rat-a-Tat-Cat Card Game
This is one our families favourite games. This card game easy enough for preschoolers to play, but challenging enough for older kids and adults too. There is lots of comparing numbers, memory, and strategy involved, as well as adding and keeping score. You can get it from Amazon.

Dot to Do Printables.
These easy dot to do printables are a fun way for preschoolers to work on counting and number skills. The smaller amount of numbers allow them to build their confidence and reveal the hidden pictures.

UNO Games
Uno is a great maths game to play with your kids, but you can play more than just Uno with a set of Uno cards! Check out these fun maths activities you can do with Uno cards, and all these fun activities you can play with Uno cards.

Numberphile Videos
The Numberphile YouTube channel is full of videos about all kinds of weird and wonderful number related things. Morgan loves this one about infinity…

Mobius Strips
These ‘one-sided non-orientable surfaces’ always intrugie my kids and they are super easy to make and explore. Find out how to make them over at What Do We Do All Day.

Parabolic Curves
This is the coolest maths art project that makes curves from straight lines! You can find instructions and download some free printable graphs to get you started with this project from Mum in The Mad House. For little ones you might like to start with this simple graph paper drawing maths art activity.

Match Stick Maths Puzzles
Do you remember doing these match stick brain teasers when you were younger? My nine year old thinks they are ace. You can download a set of 6 free printable challenges at Teach Mama and also find links to loads more.

Yahtzee
I’m not sure if good old Yahtzee is ‘cool’? My grandmother taught me how to play this dice game years ago, which probably makes it super daggy, but my kids love it anyway. You don’t need to actually buy the game, just get a set of five dice and download a printable score sheet here and find the rules here.

The Math Behind the Beat
My nine year old maths lover also loves playing piano so he LOVED this TED talk about how beat and maths are related. You can find more TED talks about maths here, and while most are aimed at adults there are a few that are kid-friendly, and you can find even more over at TED Ed.

Flextangles.
More maths art (can you tell that my kids love art too?) with ‘flexagons’ that combine shape, measurement, geometry and lots of abstract thinking when you make them. Find great instructions, information and a free printable template to make your own ‘Flextangle’ at Babble Dabble Do

Do your kids like maths?

Maybe they are like my girls and think they don’t like maths but they still like cool mathsy things?
Have you found any cool maths games or activities?

Leave a comment below and feel free to share a link or idea!