Can we talk about math? I have a child who struggles in math. When his big brown eyes, start leaking tears down those sweet cheeks my heart aches for him.

His problem is the anticipation that it won’t come easy. He shuts down on me. I know I have to get him over the panic and to the other side. This post may contain affiliate links (disclosure), but I would never suggest anything that we don’t use and love.

One of the things I have used to combat math phobia over the years is FUN! We use a game based curriculum called Right Start Mathematics and I try to add lots of games into our learning. Some of these games are typical board/card games, some of them I have found from other homeschoolers or teachers, and I have even created a few myself.

Some of these games are typical board/card games, some of them I have found from other homeschoolers or teachers, and I have even created a few myself.

I See Treasure! : Math, Graphing, Money, Counting

This is actually a game that I developed several years ago, but I updated it recently. The game is called I See Treasure! This game is a pirate math resource that is also a lot of fun if I do say so myself. This game helps develop several math skills:

Practice finding coordinates
counting money
adding decimals
carrying
& more.

You can adapt it to different ages and abilities.

Players take turns finding treasure (using graph coordinates) but have to look out for mutiny, overturned boats, and port fees. We just played three games today and the kids would have kept playing, but it was time for a spelling test.

To set up the game you will need a copy of the game board, cards, and some coins. You can place different coins on different islands on the game board. Each person will take a card and either go to an island (a card with graph coordinates), pay port fees, experience a mutiny (lose or turn), or have an overturned boat (lose their treasure). Using themes like pirate math can help easy anxiety for kids that don’t love math.

You can adapt this to meet your kids. For instance: you could use all pennies for number sense, use nickels or dimes to practice skip counting, you could even use sight words instead of coins.

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Check out the other free printables here: