Before the summer begins, my kids’ teachers always tell us how important it is to keep up their math and reading skills over the summer. I usually find it a lot easier to help them keep up with reading – visits to the libray or our local bookstore provide a new supply of books, and keep my kids interested.

Math, however, is another story. My son Josh is going into 4th grade, and he is not interested in sitting around doing worksheets or flashcards to keep up with his multiplication facts.  Luckily, Sumoku by Blue Orange Games has provided a perfect, fun way to keep up his math skills.

As you may guess from the name, Sumoku is a math game inspired by Sudoku.  Josh and I have been playing it a few times a week and it is both challenging and fun. It is recommended for ages 9 and up because children must understand multiplication in order to play.  There are 5 different ways to play, but in esssence players have to add up the tiles to multiples of a number shown on the die. Once all the tiles are used and connected together, it’s a sumoku and the player with the highest score wins.  I love the portability factor – Sumoku comes in a zippered  tote bag and is incredibly lightweight so you can take it anywhere.

If you are looking for an addition/subtraction game, Yamslam is a great choice - it ‘s recommended for kids ages 8 and up.  Josh loves this one too, especially since he can play it by himself or with a partner. It’s been described as a cross between Yahtzee and Poker.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 at 11:14 am by lisa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.