Mathematical Marvel Resources
Welcome to the Mathematical Marvel Resources page!
After poring through ALL my favorite puzzle books, activity books, games, and math tools, I’ve listed here the ones that are perfect for your child’s interests and learning style.
The Mathematical Marvel is one of three learning types from the Discover Your Math Superpower quiz. Of the three learning styles, your Mathematical Marvel tends to have the greatest sense of ease with numbers, memorizing facts, and logical thinking.
These are incredible traits to have as a math learner! 🥰
But while the math itself may come easy, your child might struggle with boredom, anxiety, perfectionism, or even the belief that she’s bad at math.
Luckily, there are so many great resources and activities that can help nurture your child’s love of math–or bring it back, if it’s been missing for awhile.
These could include games, puzzle challenges, and real-world math projects, among others. Your child may have broad interests and love anything math-related…or might be a bit fed-up with “boring math” and need something new and different to spice up her math experience.
Either way, you’ll find the resources on this page to be fun and refreshing–and a great way to nurture your child’s enthusiasm for math!
But before we dive into the math goodies, let’s take a look at a snapshot of your child’s math superpower.
A Quick Snapshot of the Mathematical Marvel
The Mathematical Marvel learns math best with intriguing puzzles, challenges, and games that encourage higher-level mathematical thinking**.
**Higher-level mathematical thinking goes beyond speedy calculation, to build more in-depth problem solving and reasoning.
When a Mathematical Marvel is anxious or stressed about math, it’s often a result of their worry that they’re not answering fast enough, or that they must get every problem right.
When your child can’t meet that impossible goal, she begins to worry that she’s bad at math.
She may make excuses when she makes a mistake, cry when another child answers more quickly, or have a meltdown when a problem takes a long time to solve.
But I’ve observed that most kids have one set of rules for school math, and another set of rules for fun math. In games, mistakes “don’t count”. That means your child can relax and enjoy learning and playing with math.
Here are my top recommended Mathematical Marvel resources for keeping your child excited about math. They are divided into: Puzzle Books, Activity Books, Picture Books, and Games.
*This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I love and would use myself.
MATH PUZZLE BOOKS
The Mathematical Marvel LOVES puzzles. It’s kinda their thing! In the books below, you’ll find engaging story problems, intriguing mysteries, and books with an impressive variety of math puzzles.
Bedtime Math: (Ages 4-9) Colorful pictures, funny stories, and crazy math questions in three levels of “spiciness”…what’s not to like? Young math lovers will adore this book. And there are others in the series, for when you run out of puzzles!
Fun Schooling Math Mysteries: (Ages 6-10) 1. Write three numbers in little boxes. 2. Insert your numbers into a word problem. 3. Draw pictures and solve the problem! This clever format is super motivating, as kids have some choice and can control the level of the problems. Bonus: They get introduced to the idea of variables X, Y, Z in a way that totally makes sense!
Math and Mindfulness: (Ages 6-10) This very visual activity book mixes puzzles with positive mindset messages. Each page lists “I can” messages (tiny, at the top) so your child knows exactly what they’re accomplishing as they solve each puzzle. Easy and harder puzzles are mixed together, so younger kids may need to skip around to find the ones they can do.
Molly and the Mathematical Mysteries: (Ages 8-11) Join Molly as she ventures into a curious world where nothing is quite as it seems. A trail of clues leads from scene to scene, presenting Molly with a number of challenges. But who is leaving the clues, and where will they lead? This interactive mystery shows math isn’t just about numbers—it’s about imagination!
The Everything Kids’ Math Puzzles Book: (Ages 9-12) A really impressive variety of puzzles in this book, including numbers in history, visual puzzles, patterns, and lots more. Lots of pictures make it engaging, but there’s also LOTS of text, so maybe not the best choice for kids reading below a 4th grade level.
MATH ACTIVITY BOOKS
It’s easy to get into a bit of a rut with math. Liven things up with color, art, and real-world projects that will get your child seeing math in all kinds of different ways.
Amazing Visual Math: (Ages 7-10) This incredibly visual, kinesthetic book helps invites your child to explore 3D shapes, patterns, symmetry, telling time, and more through hands-on pull tabs, flaps, and pop-ups.
Kitten Math: (Ages 8-11) Your child can learn math through the real-life lens of fostering kittens! Your child will use math to care for their kittens, as they mix formula, weigh their kittens, shop for supplies, design a kitten room, and much more. Animal lovers will LOVE this book!
Multiplication and Division Color By Math: (Ages 8-11) A gorgeous color-by-number for older kids. Solve the problem, match the answer to a color, and color in the intricate picture.
Math Art and Drawing Games for Kids: (Ages 8-11): Visual & creative kids will love this book, which is heavy on the “art” and light on the “math”. While most of the book is geometry/shapes focused, there are a few projects on multiplication and fractions. It’s a good way to help art lovers connect with math.
This Is Not a Maths Book: (Ages 9-12) A book of art and geometry that is sure to draw in your creative-minded child. (Ha ha, see what I did there?) There is some detail-oriented line drawing, so good fine motor skills are helpful.
Math Picture Books
Picture books are NOT just for little kids, and that’s especially true with math picture books. These are stories your child will want to enjoy over and over, and may even inspire some math investigations of their own.
One Grain of Rice: (Ages 5-11) Long ago in India, a raja stored up almost all the people’s rice in case of famine. But when famine came, he refused to share the rice and people went hungry. A clever young girl named Rani devises a clever plan, asking for just one grain of rice, doubled for the next 30 days–then shares it with all the people.
Measuring Penny: (Ages 6-11) Lisa has an important homework assignment: to measure one thing in several different ways. She decides to measure her dog Penny, and uses paper clips, dog biscuits, and other creative tools. (Warning: This book may inspire your child to measure their own furry housemates!)
Blockhead: (Ages 7-11) A delightful book about patterns in nature, and the life of Leonardo Fibonacci as a boy. Bullied by other kids and by teachers for being a dreamer, Leonardo’s observations led to his discovery of the Fibonacci Sequence. Kids love finding the hidden Fibonacci spirals and nature objects on each page!
The Lion’s Share: (Ages 7-11) A lion invites all the animals for a feast on his birthday. Greedy animals take half of the cake that is passed to them, so none is left for the ant…or King Lion! Ant promises to make Lion a cake, which prompts the other animals to promise cakes as well. This is a tale of halving and doubling, with incredible illustrations and a great story.
A Hundred Billion Stars: (Ages 7-11) Did you know that the earth is covered in three trillion trees? And that seven billion people weigh about the same as ten quadrillion ants? If your child is intrigued by really big numbers, they’ll love this book.
Math Games
Math card games, dice games, and board games are a great way to encourage your child’s love of math. Many of the following games encourage deeper mathematical thinking, and are appropriate for players with mixed math levels.
Tiny Polka Dot: (Ages 4-9) This is not just a deck for little kids! There are lots of games to play with these colorful dot and number cards, for a range of abilities. I love that you can play each game with different types of cards (ex: random dot, or ten frame, or the digit).
Miss Brain’s Cool Math Games: (Ages 5-11) Not a game itself, but a book of 30+ dice and card games that invite your child to play with math. The games target specific skills, so you can play a game instead of a worksheet to teach or practice math. Highly recommended! There is a book for grades 1-3, and another for grades 3-5.
Quirkle: (Ages 6-11) In this visual logic game, players make columns and rows of tiles (kind of like a crossword puzzle). Make lines with the same shape and all different colors, or the same color and all different shapes.
Prime Climb: (Ages 8-12) The goal is to move both your pieces in a spiral along numbers from 1 to 101. The genius of this game is that players can use any math operation to move, so a player on number 20 who rolls a 5 could multiply and end up on 100 in just one roll! Be sure to explore the color pattern on each number; can you figure out the rule?
Adsumudi: (Ages 9-12) Adsumudi is a lively little monster who calls out the answer. Each player’s job is to use numbers on their card to make a problem with that answer. Different levels require players to use at least 2 numbers, 3 numbers, 4 numbers, or all 5 (for “monstrously hard mode”)–making it possible for those at different levels to play together.
More Mathematical Marvel Resources
The Mathematical Marvel resources on this page can bring your child LOTS of joy in the days, months, and years to come! Be sure to bookmark this page; this is one you’ll want to revisit often as your child grows.
For even more creative math resources, be sure to check out our Artful Math Shop. You’ll find holiday math, creative activities for specific math topics, and real-world projects. (NOTE: These are digital, downloadable products that you print out at home.)
Did you find this page helpful? Leave a comment below and let me know!