God and math—both are complex but orderly and reasonable. Patterns in nature and numerical relationships point to this attribute. This summer, help your child keep their math skills sharp with five fun outdoor games.

1. 2-D shape water drawing. Get an old paintbrush and a cup for water. Ask your child to paint a triangle, square, and other shapes, then watch them evaporate. To up the rigor, ask them to describe how many sides and vertices each shape has. This activity works best on a hot day.
2. Skip Counting Hopscotch.  Use sidewalk chalk to draw a regular hopscotch board. As early elementary students hop the squares, have them skip count by 2s, 5s, or 10s. Older ones can add skip count by 3s, 4s, 6s, 7s, 8s, and 9s. Mastery of this skill helps kids with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  
3. Target Addition/ Comparing Numbers. Draw a target with sidewalk chalk. Put age appropriate numbers into each ring. (For example, younger children have 0-10, older ones have double digit numbers.) Kids throw three stones onto the target and add up the numbers they land on. Do five rounds. Then order the scores from least to greatest.
4. Clocks. Use sidewalk chalk to draw an analog clock without hands. Brainstorm a list of fun activities. Assign each a time. For younger kids, make the time to the hour. For older ones, include five minute intervals. Your child stands in the center and uses her hands to show the time of her three favorite activities.
5. Number Line Addition and Subtraction. Use sidewalk chalk to draw a number line and a target. Label both with age appropriate numbers. Players start at the beginning of the line. With a squirt gun, kids shoot at the target. Whatever spot they hit, they advance (add) that amount on the number line. Each time they move, they must shoot the target from their new spot. If they miss, they go back (subtract) one interval. Whoever is furthest along the number line after 5 shots wins the game!

After you enjoy a game, remind your child about God’s great wisdom. Romans 11:33 NASV says, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”

Which game sounds like the most fun to try? Do you have another good one to add (pun intended)–maybe even one for language arts? Please tell me in the comments!

Lori Z. Scott

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
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