Online Math Games for Girls

Most online math games, although well-intentioned, do not work well for the average female learning style for the following reasons:

• They emphasize competition and high scores over co-operation
• They focus on individual skills rather than broad concepts
• Because of their very nature, they have to focus on math questions with one right answer, rather than open-ended questions
• They don't tend to address real-life situations

Although these sites are useful for limited amounts of practice with certain skills, they can't be used to put together a comprehensive math program for girls. With those caveats, here are some of our favourite sites:

• Funbrain's math arcade has some fun games for K to 8 (American curriculum).
• The BBC has maths games linked to their GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) revision (review) site. Our favourite is the Lost Army of Fu Shi.
• The online game of SET doesn't link to any specific math curriculum, but it does involve problem-solving, logic, and pattern matching.
• IXL.com (remember it as "I Excel") is a new-ish, paid site that lets kids earn virtual stickers and has a theme for each grade from 1 to 8. They list Ontario curriculum as "coming soon", but currently it's American curriculum.