Number Crunch
'Avoid the purple things or these will lose you a life, and you only have three.'

Suzanne Elvidge challenges us to makes our brains work harder with ten online number-based games

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To play a game, simply click on its name. If you are a parent, we advise you to try the game and the site it's on first before letting your kids play them, to make sure you're happy. Don't forget, you can also find great games for kids at Christian Aid's Global Gang website

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Time to wake up your brain and exercise the ‘leetle grey cells’ – try these ten number games to get your brain counting.

Number Crunch
Move the yellow ‘thing’ from square to square by clicking the mouse and crunch away the numbers using the space bar, according to the rule given at the top – this will include Includes multiples, addition, subtraction, factors, and primes. Avoid the purple things or these will lose you a life, and you only have three.

Sudoku
Sudoku is a number game where all 3 x 3 boxes, all lines and all columns must include all numbers from one to nine. Fill in the numbers – duplicated numbers show up in red. There are many Sudoku sites all over the internet.

Hitori Island
This is a logic puzzle – eliminate duplicate numbers so that no number appears more than once in any row or column to create a gold island in a blue sea.

Click on a number to eliminate it, and click and hold to mark any cells that must be gold (makes solving a bit easier). Once a row or column is complete, cross-hatching will appear. There are some hints and tips in the ‘how to play’ tab. There are three ‘hints’ available.

Ripple Effect
Another logic puzzle – each block has the numbers 1; 1 & 2; 1, 2 & 3; or 1, 2, 3 & 4 in it. In any row or column, there must be one cell between any two 1s, two cells between any two 2s, three cells between any two 3s, and four cells between any two 4s. Use the mouse to click through the numbers in each cell. When a block is completed, it is cross-hatched.

Numbers
Click on numbers on the board to add up to the number on the right – the game is over when there are not enough numbers left to make the total. Watch out for the time – if you run out of time, the game is over. Oddly addictive.

Math Attack: The Revenge of the Numbers
Select a number, choose +, -, x or /, choose the second number and find the result to clear all the pieces. Easy as 1 + 1!

Catch Thirty Three
The simplest game of all ten (but don’t play it when you have a headache …) – just use your mouse to catch numbers 1 to 33 in order.

Math 101
Add or subtract the numbers on the screen and click on the right answer. Made me realise I’m not as good at negative numbers as I thought!

Math Invaders
Based on the old Space Invaders games, hit an alien with numbers until its number is the same as the number on the left of the row. Change the number you shoot by hitting that number key on the keyboard.

Number Twins
Choose a number and link up pairs of numbers that add up to your chosen total. The numbers must be next to each other, or linkable by up to three straight lines.

And as an extra, a few number fallacies.

Suzanne Elvidge is a freelance writer and Surefish Ethical Living Editor

Links

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