Shuffle up. Whether you’re playing Concentration, Crazy Eights or Solitaire, a simple deck of cards can lead to numerous math lessons. One good alternative is Addition War. The dealer passes out all the cards, which are kept face down in piles. Each player turns up two cards. The person with the highest sum wins the hand and collects all four cards. This can be done with multiplication as well.

• Play board games. Even the simplest children’s games such as Chutes and Ladders or Candyland require counting. Kick it up a notch with Monopoly to give older children practice adding large sums. Kids 5 to 8 will appreciate Monopoly Junior, which takes place at an amusement park.
• Dump out the coin jar. Even kindergartners can count and sort. Older children should name the coins and use them to count by 1s, 5s, 10s and 25s. Award a quarter to star performers.
• Watch the clock. Be sure you have at least one analog (non-digital) clock in the house that includes all the numbers (not just 3, 6, 9 and 12). Then as often as you think of it, ask your child to tell you the time.
• Give an allowance. Set up a system for younger children through which they earn, say, a nickel each time they complete a chore. Then help them chart their earnings and count out their pay at the end of the week. For older children, include lunch money into their allowance and help them create and keep a budget.
• Estimate and count everything. How many steps do you think there are in the staircase? Have everyone place a guess, and then count them together. This game can take place spontaneously throughout the day, no matter where you are. How much money do you think this cart full of groceries will cost? How many items are there in the grocery cart? How much will that bunch of bananas weigh? All of the answers can be found on the sales receipt. The children can find and repeat these answers on the way home.
• Go outside. Set up a rain gauge, measure your shadows, estimate how many blades of grass are poking through that crack in the sidewalk — Mother Nature is a great math tutor.
• Bowl them over. Head to your local bowling alley and ask for an old-fashioned scorecard rather than using the electronic scorekeeper. Hand a pencil to your child and let her keep tally.
• Get cooking. Counting chocolate chips, measuring ingredients and watching the timer are all math lessons. Math and cooking go hand-in-hand. And the end result is always delicious.