For several years, I have been playing mathematical & other games with my own children. I have even offered monetary rewards, the most powerful motivator known to my 12 ½ year old, all with what seems little effect to me. These are my own offspring. And I love math. The effects are only occasional & intermittent: e.g., my discussion of the decimal system with the 9-year-old. It had at least a little effect. My frequent use of the Pythagorean theorem with the then 7 & 10-year olds may have had some impact. It has many applications in bird hunting & in estimating measurements. I regularly use it in estimating range of birds. A few years ago, it established that we were in a legal hunting area. In that instance we were in one of the few good hunting areas in that region. That actually seemed to affect-- in fact, actually impress-- them. Perhaps, they were reading the faces of those around them, including at least one Olympic shotgunner. Whatever it was, at least it motivated them to some extent. And, perhaps that is as much as we should reasonably wish. Anyway, at least they were impressed with the value of mathematics & education (and maybe even the old man). <br><br>As I think about it, a lot of my own comfort with math dates back to my second year of algebra in high school. Maybe a certain facility needs to develop before math becomes fun. I also recall doing ballistics problems for extra credit in math. Somehow I doubt such fun, natural, practical applications are offered in our current school books. Anyway an inquisitive mind can still discern those applications. IIRC, some of those applications may be found in Hatcher's Notebook , a book which is about due for a rereading. I also have my old math & physics books containing the requisite formulae. Maybe its about time to review them for potentially interesting problems for the kids. When the shotgunning is really slow, it can also be interesting to compare the hypothetical pattern densities of various loads at different ranges against the size of the bird hunted to determine the theoretical number of pellet hits on a bird. Obviously the procedures are pretty basic; the fun part is trying to keep all the calculations straight in your head. <br><br>I think the key to interesting kids in math is perseverance.<br><br>Good luck!<br><br><br>John