What to do with this activity?
Noughts and crosses is a great game to encourage step-by-step logical thinking in your child. You need two people to play, and you can play it anywhere with just a piece of paper and a pen or pencil.
Draw a little grid with two lines crossing another two lines at right angles. This will give you nine squares. Decide who is going to write "X"s and who will write "0"s and off you go, taking turns. The winner is the person who manages to fill three squares in a row, either across, down or diagonally.
If your child prefers playing it online you can find it here. It gives them the option of playing against the computer, or against each other.
Another name for noughts and crosses is tic-tac-toe.
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Why am I doing this?
Children learn numbers and maths in a natural way through play and everyday activities. It’s different to school and should always be fun and practical – that way your child will enjoy working with numbers.
Your child also develops a sense of patterns and what time means in everyday life. This is important for helping your child to manage everyday activities – going places, how long they have to wait and understanding when things will happen in the future.
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How can I do more?
Talking about numbers helps your child’s fluency in counting, estimating and understanding numbers and money in everyday life. It takes time for children to understand addition and subtraction so use objects when helping them understand this or when doing their homework.
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