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Yes, some boys just naturally love math. They beg for a log in to Khan Academy so they can study ahead and learn trigonometry in middle school. These are not my boys. My boys would rather bathe than do math. They do, however, love jumping up and down, tossing a ball around, stomping, and shooting at things. Here are some ideas to get you up and moving:
- Stomp around while skip counting.
- Get a big piece of cardboard; attach index cards with answers to whatever set of problems you are working on randomly all over the board; give your son a Nerf gun and start calling out problems.
- Get a small exercise trampoline and let your son skip count while bouncing.
- Toss a ball back and forth - you calling out a problem when you throw and your son calling out the answer as he throws it back.
Money is another great motivator for learning math. Given your son a check register and let him add up all the money he gets from allowance and extra chores and subtract what he spends. Let him make change whenever the opportunity arises. I have my sons write out a proposal for any large purchases they want to make (especially if they are going in together), showing where all the money is coming from, who is contributing what, what they are buying, and why I should let them buy it - also a good exercise in persuasive writing.
There are some great books that will give you all kinds of ideas for fun ways to actively learn math. The Family Math series is a great place to start. These books are full of fun games and activities to get you and your sons out of your seats and using math.
Another great series for math activities (and just about anything else you can think of) is the Brown Paper School series. These are great for kids who don't think they like math. They are written to the middle school crowd with great wit. They've been out of print for a while, but can be found at libraries and for as little as a penny on Amazon.
I was looking for some workbooks that would have something more interesting than your usual worksheet with 40 repetitious problems, the Basic, Not Boring series is great. Each book has a theme (sports, the beach, etc.) and each page is an activity with a story and illustrations. They focus more on problem solving than repetition.
If it's repetition that you need, there are several sites that have great games to let your kids drill their skills:
Fun-Kids Online Math
Mathopolis
Math Is Fun
I have found that the best way to keep interest up is to keep changing things up. First thing in the morning, my boys can take some "sit down and do math" time, but I keep it short. Drilling facts can be done anytime you have ten minutes to jump on the trampoline. Then, end the week with a great game of Monopoly to practice counting money and making change.