Math Learning Steps

Developmental stage

Strategy games are games where the players have choices that produce better or worse outcomes. These games have a lot to offer children. In particular, they naturally motivate children to do problem solving. However, the difficulty with these is that they require rule following and a willingness to participate in organized play. If your child is not ready yet for this kind of play environment, please be patient and let them get to a developmental point where they are ready. There is plenty of time.

Be patient

When children are first ready to play organized games and are introduced to a new game, you will probably need to be very patient. It could well be that the first ten times you attempt to play the game your child will have fun with all the pieces and do many things that have nothing to do with the game. This is a process. Your child needs to become familiar with the game and its pieces, and the novelty needs to wear off a bit. You will know when your child is ready and your patience has paid off.

Play around

At first, it is likely that your child won’t really have a sense of winning and losing, and won’t understand that their choices make a difference. That’s okay. You are just there to have fun together. Over time, as the game and its choices become more familiar, your child will start to see that their choices make a difference and that they care about those differences.

Invisible math sometimes

Strategy games don’t always involve numeric components, but they are mathematical anyway. Any strategy game offers many important learning opportunities, some mathematical and some not. As mentioned earlier, problem solving is high on the list of skills that are developed by these games. Critical thinking and logical communication are also being developed. The rule following and turn taking are very good for social-emotional learning.