What does the child in your life love?
Pick it. You will find a card for the sideline and, on most doors, what to use at the event and a short course for you, and the rung your child can climb at every age on Spark & Anvil. These are the same doors, drawn with the same objects, that a child picks there.
This page stores nothing. Each door is just a link.
- American football
- Archery
- Art
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Birds
- Bowling
- Bridge
- Building bricks
- Card games
- Chess
- Collecting cards
- Computers
- Cooking and food
- Cricket
- Curling
- Cycling
- Dance
- Dinosaurs
- Diving
- Flying
- Gardening
- Go
- Golf
- Gymnastics
- Hiking
- Knitting
- Martial arts
- Mind sports
- Movies
- Music
- Paper folding
- Para sport
- Pets
- Photography
- Piano
- Racing
- Rodeo
- Rowing
- Running
- Saving up
- Shops and money
- Singing
- Skating
- Skiing
- Snack machines
- Soccer
- Social media
- Speedcubing
- Swimming
- TV
- Tennis
- Theme parks
- Video games
- Water polo
- Weather
One question for tonight, for every door → A page of every door's way-home question, to print or keep on a phone.
Further reading and watching
Other people's free or library work that finds the maths in ordinary things. We are not paid for any of it, and these links carry no tracking.
- Bedtime Math · App and books · ages about 3–9
One short maths story about an everyday thing each night, for a grown-up and child together, at three levels. Free app from a non-profit. In a 2015 study of first-graders, families who used it even once a week saw gains by the end of the year, most of all where a parent felt anxious about maths.
- Math Curse, by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith · Book · ages about 6–10
A picture book in which a child wakes to find that everything in an ordinary day is a maths problem. Good for spotting the maths together. Most public libraries have it.
- Estimation 180 · Website · ages about 10 and up
One photo a day to estimate: make a guess, say why, then see the answer. The same guess-first habit the Spark & Anvil rungs use. Made by a teacher; free.
- Peg + Cat · Video · ages about 3–5
Short cartoons where problems are solved with counting, shapes and patterns. Free on PBS KIDS. An independent study found gains in some of the early maths skills it targets.
- Odd Squad · Video · ages about 5–8
Young agents fix odd problems with maths. Free on PBS KIDS. In a small four-week classroom study, first-graders gained in number and early algebra.
- Cyberchase · Video · ages about 6–11
A long-running adventure where maths saves the day. Free on PBS KIDS, with games. Studies funded by the National Science Foundation reported gains in problem solving and in how children felt about maths.