At the beginning of every summer, many parents look for ways to help their children retain what they learned during the school year. In the past, people had to buy materials or create their own. Today, we have the internet that is chock full of resources. If you look hard enough, you'll find cool math games for kids as well as worksheets and other activities.

Math Games for Kids

When looking for online math games, there are a few things parents should look for. First, are there ads on the page? If so, are they appropriate? Personally, I prefer to avoid pages that have ads, especially if a younger child will be using the math game. Even if young children are told what they can or cannot click on, accidents happen, especially if Mom or Dad turns their backs. Children may inadvertently end up on an inappropriate site. However, most ads are relevant to the content, and are safe.

Second, what will the game teach the child. One of my kids' favorite games is designed to make my kids feel like they are scientists (K12), but it's real purpose is to drill them in their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division math facts. Every time they answer a question correctly, they capture a germ.

Another game my kids like to do is also a math drilling game. Instead of being scientists, they try to beat the clock by answering a certain number of questions, set by an adult. As they answer the questions correctly, the grid shows them how well they are doing.

Virtual Math Manipulatives

Virtual math manipulatives are a great resource, especially if a family cannot or is not interested in purchasing physical manipulatives, which can be very pricey. Once again, it is important to see what kind of ads are on the pages children are allowed to view.

There are a wide range of virtual math manipulatives available. For instance, my kids enjoy making shapes on geometry boards. They get virtual rubber bands and make shapes. The program tells them what kind of shape they have created. Alternatively, the program is also designed to tell children which shapes they need to make such as a right triangle, an obtuse triangle, or an acute triangle. In that way, children are reminded of the names and properties of the shapes.

One activity that is easier to use online than in physical form are fraction bars. Kids can change which fractions they make by moving a slider. This allows them to compare fractions so they can see which is bigger and which is smaller.

Publisher's Math Resources

Before the school year is over, parents can make sure they know which publisher published their kids' math books. A quick search online search will help parents to find out if the publisher has made available any math resources online. In the past, we used Progress in Mathematics by Sadlier-Oxford. When we went to their site, we found grade specific games, printables, activities of the day, and math related vocabulary. One of our favorite resources is Math Minutes. Kids try to answer as many problems solved in a short amount of time.

Methods for Summer Math Practice

Most kids do not want to do school work during the summer. If parents want to have their kids practice each day, they have to plan for it to happen. Good intentions aren't enough. Here are my suggestions:

• I often let my children choose which activities they do. I give them a list so that they can choose any activity that I've already approved. This gives them more control over what they do and will make it more exciting to them. Also, my goal is let them be kids and not burn them out with too much academic work over the summer.

My kids often choose to play a math game called XGerms. They can make their own avatar, pretend to be scientists, and memorize their math facts as they go. There are no ads on that could lead them to sites that I disapprove.

• I sometimes give them a few incentives to do their math each day including setting up activities that they enjoy that will only happen if we reach our goals by a certain time. Sometimes I make a chart that we can fill out. When we get to the last day on the chart, we do something that we all agree on that is significant and out of the ordinary to celebrate that we reached our summer math goals.

Conclusion

There are many available math resources online that can be used during the summer to help kids remember what they learned during the school year. At our house, kids practice their math facts about 20 minutes a day or less during the summer. Just a brief reminder about what they learned does a world of wonders, but parents have to plan ahead to make it happen.