On the 12 Days of Christmas The Maths Mum® presents to you...

Put a bit of Maths in your stockings this Christmas!

The Maths Mum® presents her 12 Days of “Maths Christmas Stocking Fillers”… tried and tested ideas that are fun as well as educational.

Day 1 - The book “How Big is a Million?” by Anna Milbourne and Serena Riglietti is beautifully written and illustrated. It is just right for the young, inquisitive mind seeking out an explanation of how big a million really is.  Join Pipkin the penguin on his quest to find out.  And see for yourself what a million actually looks like!

Day 2 - The game “Shut the Box” also called Blitz, Bakarat, Canoga, Klackers, Batten Down the Hatches, Kingoball, Trictrac, Cut Throat, and Jackpot, is a game of dice for one or more players, commonly played in a group of two to four for stakes.   I love this game as it can be played from a very young age but still as enjoyable for us oldies!  

Day 3 - Found on Amazon, this OOCOME Magnetic Toy is a small, colourful, and tactile widget that is easy to use. The strong magnets pull together and you can create easy number sentences or harder maths questions to be solved.

Day 4 - DICE and more dice! The Math Mum® loves a dice - especially two ten-sided 0-9 digit dice that can be thrown together to form 2-digit numbers for practicing #SEE2DO2 or two twelve-sided 1-12 digit dice that can be thrown together to practice your 12 x 12 times tables at random! Unfortunately you can’t buy these dice cheaply in packs of 2, so The Maths Mum® has created a set of dice for sale in the shop.

Day 5 - Usborne Activities Cards are always popular and these wipe-clean Number Puzzles cards are full of excellent maths challenges. If The Maths Mum® had more time she would definitely be making these types of resources!!

Day 6 - “OK Play” is a Connect 4 type tile game from Big Potato Games. It’s not exactly a pure maths game but it is something that as a family we have successfully been able to play… and that includes a child with special needs. It is so simple yet highly competitive!

Day 7 - It’s got to be TOP TRUMPS. Great for learning numbers - big and small numbers; more than and less than. You can chose a set to suit your child’s interest and they easily fit in your handbag for trips out.

Day 8 - The Maths Mum® uses SKITTLES to demonstrate all types of maths in this household and the upside is that they taste great as well.

Day 9 - Author Kjartan Poskitt combines comedy and maths to bring about the “Murderous Maths” series of books. His latest is the 100% horrible box set ‘To the power of ten’. Reading and maths - at the same time… winner, winner chicken dinner!

Day 10 - A magic whiteboard… The Maths Mum® has witnessed this in school… give a child a whiteboard and dry wipe marker and suddenly maths is a LOT more interesting!

Day 11 - UNO is another winning family game in our household - are you going to go on the attack or are you going to sit back and hope to go unnoticed!?

Day 12 - And last, but not least, there is PAYDAY - a board game from the creators of Monopoly. It truly teaches the art of money management and budgeting! Never too young to teach this skill and see if you can make it through to the next payday.

Hopefully one of these inspire you and please do love Maths this festive season!