My 14 year old son was frustrated with "Fun" math games as they were not really fun. So he started building his own games in p5.js and recently he launched these games at https://thegamebox.ca/
He has been making these games since he was 10yo, so there is a progression in quality. Last game he made is not a math game but a puzzle game (Red Remover) he used to play and love when he was very young and was no longer available.
He has done all the graphics as well for these games.
Just played through all the levels of Red Remover. Those were fun. Kudos to your son for not just making games but sharing them. At 14 I was just grinding away at World of Warcraft... didn't even touch programming or making games myself until I was in college.
My daughter is in 1st grade and really enjoys playing blackjack with me(Dad). It's an amazing metaphor for addition and gives some good entrypoints for talking about probability and decision making.
We play for candy. Surprisingly she hasn't eaten any of it yet. She seems to be balancing her desire to beat dad by having more candy and her desire to eat candy. It's been great bonding time too.
This is amazing because I just started doing exactly the same thing with my 1st grader with similar results. She loves it so much more than the terrible worksheets she comes home with.
Yeah! Go you!
There's so many great lessons in this game -- arithmetic, probability, decision making, managing competing desires, risk and ROI (gotta bet some to get something back, and ultimately you might not get it back).
How would you feel about an online game where your kid played blackjack for candy to learn addition? Is it still ok, or is that only something you would have her play with you? That sounds fun and is such a great practical application of the skill she's learning.
The math and probability part could probably be made into a game. Something engaging and with a compelling end goal (candy or completion of a fun narrative) would catch her eye.
My goals for playing are more oriented towards bonding, learning useful/life lessons, and keeping the kiddo challenged.
My son responds super well to gamified learning. What I found is that there are plentiful options when it comes to math... but not as much so when it comes to reading.
When he was in kindergarten during the disrupted school year of 2020/21... I created a "reading version" of the classic Battle Ship game. Instead of a 10x10 grid of letters and numbers it was a 10x10 grid of K-2 "sight words" that I would randomly choose and draw onto a grid (in Excel) that could be printed.
Then we'd play by reading and repeating sight words to indicate the coordinates to attack. He loved it!
I am willing to pay $1000 for a math game that won't be silly. I'm not even kidding. I tried to find something that would spark interest, captivate, but I had little luck with math games.
I wrote my own (if you scroll my comment history) math game/app which is little bit different and partially solves the problem.
But I am constantly looking for anything that would be cool, captivating, and educational.
as a source of inspiration, something I just did that you might find worth exploring: I just bought a dozen old Martin Gardner books out of desperation. So far they're working really well. (For a 5th grader). About $4 each on used book sites.
(I mine through them to find little puzzles to feed to the 10-year-old as we're doing things like driving to activities)
One of the ideas - introduction to math equations as 3D graphics game with effects.
I haven't seen such games, except silly, that do that.
Maybe some other foundational math principles implemented as games.
I love https://www.zachtronics.com/ games, but these games are for 12+ I guess, and even more. Not always about math though.
Adults assume that kids are fine with silly educational tools. While in reality they're boring, because every school implements some sort of cheap flash/html5 games that solve nothing. I want the kiddo to solve hundreds examples in 3D, maybe even in VR, and enjoy that. Instead of 2D browser old-skool tech.
I don't understand why VR is underutilized in education. Where are all the games we're supposed to have to educate children? Imagine how easy it's explain x^3 (like 10^3, 25^3, and so on) in VR?
I am using VR for fitness, and it's been a great success. Lost 17 pounds with 5 more to go for my goal. I am paying $20/month for the app. But I'd be willing to pay for similar math educational app.
Something like Myst could be a very fun implementation of this. Have some of the puzzle be solved by manipulation of the environment using graphing, or have actual mathematical puzzles.
I bet a word problem would be much more interesting if you play it out
Worked very well with 5yo daughter; she and mum thought it was very good ("not too busy, extremely clear").
One small thing that upset daughter (only a little bit) was getting "Game over!" - which I think just meant she'd come to the end of the game, but which she took as "You lost!" (probably as a result of watching older brother play games). If that's right, then consider changing wording to "Well done, you've reached the end of the game!" rather than the (more negative, to many people) "Game over!".
I played through two of the games twice and if I'm not mistaken, the sequence of numbers is always the same. Could they be randomized? I have a feeling children would learn the pattern and not focus on numbers.
Random thought that I'm not sure is even a good thought. Tried the number pizza man game, and one mechanic which I thought may be interesting is if the distribution of values in the pizza boxes changes as time goes on. Rather than maybe skipping ahead after a while if the student doesn't get it, slowly change the randomization to include more and more, and then perhaps only exclusively, the right answer. This would allow a kid to still "get it," while still engaging them in the game mechanic.
I'm actually in the process of writing a game for my nephew, who is turning 9.
My game is going to be more about going to school and encourage him to have fun learning and socialising; perhaps shooting zombies, protecting/getting power-up from the school, collecting books for points.
He lives in a poor household where the mother doesn't want to do anything that isn't life-or-death. The kids (he's oldest of 3) are alive regardless of going to school,and the mother didn't need school, so there's a real need for some sort of external encouragement to push beyond that.
It seems trite, but I do wish that fortnite had some "stay in school" message, even just in the title sequence / main menu.
Is there any evidence, from the academic literature or otherwise, that math games improve educational outcomes? (Sorry, I know that sounds like a wet blanket statement and I am not discouraging the OP from trying to make an impact here. I am just curious.) Also, I tried to play a couple of games (e.g., https://www.mindlygames.com/game/skip-counting-by-5-dino-soa...), but it has been stuck "loading" for the entire duration of how long it took me to write this comment.
Sure. I used to work in education policy, and this was the most reliable source I can recall of peer-reviewed studies on impacts of educational curricula/interventions. Plugged in elementary school games for you:
Hi! Any chance you could let me know what type of device your using? We tested on a few after your comment and this might be a really helpful piece of info for us. Thanks for letting us know it isn't loading for you!
Couple of things here didn't work; firefox 102.4.ESR and chromium on linux go to '100%' on Dino Eggs and hang there; works on same PC using chrome and on a random Win10 box with Chrome.
Dino's eggs also popped up two '40' choices for a Q where answer was 40 - but one of them said wrong answer (as reported by 5YO experimental subject).
The key thing is that they encourage kids to willingly spend time learning. https://www.wired.com/2012/06/dragonbox/ is a good article on the author's experience with a similar game and their kid
Fwiw, in "Numberman's Pizza Party | Addition within 5", after the question (and answer) has changed, clicking on a box with the old (now incorrect) answer yields correct pizza. And the reverse. It seems box correctness is set at creation, rather than reflecting the current question? Which sets up a dynamic of look at question, click on "correct for current question" box, get told it's wrong.
Yup, that caught me off guard, too. Perhaps a solution would be to have a gap where the old pizzas finish but no new ones are added, then change the prompt and start new pizzas when the screen is empty.
Another problem I saw in that game: At one point the prompt was 50 45 __ 35 but it wanted me to click on 30. That was in the Skip Counting By 5 game.
A plug for "Math from Three to Seven: The Story of a Mathematical Circle for Preschoolers" seems warranted here. It has great ideas for fun things to do with kids as well.
This book is great indeed. Coincidentally, I just published a post where talking about how this book encouraged me to start a little math circle myself: https://boogiemath.org/meta/meta-2
I just read through it too! Love the comedy. And I don’t think the kids were lucky not to have you as a teacher! They would have been lucky to have you! I’m sorry you got side tracked by the pandemic there.
Yes, we were meeting in person every Wednesday. There were two groups - about three years old in the first group and about five, six years old in the second group (at the time when we started).
Ah! Not me. I should have made that clear. A Mathematician named Alexander Zvonkin wrote it. The book's super well written and is full of useful ideas though!
Side note: the background music on one of the games (Space Race | Three-Digit Addition - Adding 10) reminded me of this Bollywood song: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mXkbWKr5ovU
Thanks for sharing. Im always on the lookout for good teaching aids. Unfortunately I find this too stimulating for me to present to my kids. I prefer to show my kids media that is calming and beautiful rather than "fun".
How did you make these games? I think it’s fun but would it be possible to make it multiplayer? Say two kids, one on each device, and join the game to play against one another.
Some additional consequences for just trying all the answers - or a mode where there are, if you've got a kid who will just click on them all instead of thinking.
