Studies show that math skills are a strong indicator of a child’s potential for future success. According to a 2007 study in the journal of developmental psychology, strong math skills at kindergarten entry are a stronger predictor of school achievement later in life than either reading skills or the ability to pay attention.

Additionally, studies have shown that learning more math as a child can increase the likelihood of attending college and raise annual income in adulthood.

According to Clancy Blair, a professor of psychology at New York University, performing math problems improves reasoning, problem solving skills, behavior and self-control. Scientists associate these skills with the pre frontal cortex of the human brain. This region of the brain is thought to continue to develop into a person’s early 30s. According to Professor Blair, working on math problems improves the way a person’s brain functions and can translate into the ability to earn more money and form more stable relationships in adulthood.

Clearly, learning math is good for kids, but motivating your child to do math for fun can be difficult to say the least, especially when the last thing most kids want to do is sit down to work on math problems as part of their homework. I certainly felt that way as a child, and to be honest, still do as an adult.

So then how do you motivate kids to do math? Tutors are expensive, and busy parents can’t be expected to add “teacher“ to the list of roles they are juggling.

Funbrain Makes Learning Math Entertaining

Meet funbrain, the site that offers cool math games kids can play for free.

Problem solved, with no expensive tutors, no unrealistic demands on parents’ time. Just fun computer games that teach kids math while they play.

If your kids are anything like I was as a child they would much rather be playing computer games than working on math problems. What better way to turn that motivation for playing computer games into motivation to learn math than the cool math games funbrain offers?

Turning learning math into fun games is the best way to cultivate interest in this most daunting of school subjects. Sites like funbrain allow you to do just that by offering free, fun, math games your kids can play on the computer.

Of course, you can teach your kids math through fun games both in the virtual world and in real life. The infographic below, from the Jason Schneider and the Wall Street Journal, shows some fun games you can teach your kids to get them using math in real life, day-to-day activities.

How do you teach your kids about math and money? Share your favorite sites and games below.