Magic Maths game by Orchard Toys

I love finding fun educational games that the kids can play at home. Any time the kids get to practice maths, reading or spelling in a fun way that does not involve a worksheet is a bonus for me. Because the more the kids enjoy it, the more they end up practicing.

When Orchard Toys asked if we would be interested in trying the Magic Maths game I was not too sure as my son is not really into wizards but I was looking for a maths game for him so I agreed to give it a go. My son LOVES the game (aged 6). He LOVES the idea of collecting all the “yucky ingredients”. In fact he kept asking to play the game just so he could see which ingredients he could collect.

How the game works – Each player gets a board and 6 ingredient/answer cards (the ingredient cards are turned so that the answer is facing the player and the picture of the ingredient is on the back). Then the players take it in turn to select a star card. They turn the star card over to reveal a sum. If they have the answer to the sum in their 6 cards in front they can add that ingredient card to their board. If they do not have the answer then the other players get a chance to try and answer the sum and see if they have the correct answer card.

If they are not sure what the answer is the kids can rub the star on the reverse side of their sum card and the answer will appear (you do need to give it a good rub to reveal the answer).

The first player to fill their board with the 6 ingredients is the winner (and in our house that means you get a massive hug from your sister).

The sum cards that are included in the game vary from fairly basic addition and subtraction to harder addition and subtraction sums and also a few times table sums. As the focus of the game was practice for my youngest I did got through the sum cards before hand and take a few of the harder ones out.