A snail on a wall, posts in a fence, socks in the dark. Short word puzzles that look easy and are not. Five levels, a Riddle of the Day, and printable worksheets.
Math Riddles builds careful thinking about counting, the skill behind the harder word problems in children's maths contests. These riddles look like sums but are not. A fence with 6 posts has 5 gaps, not 6. A log cut into 4 pieces needs 3 cuts. A snail that climbs 3 cm by day and slips 1 cm by night reaches a 7 cm top on day 3, not on day 4 as dividing 7 by 2 suggests. A child who rushes gives the obvious answer, and the obvious answer is wrong on purpose. Each riddle comes with a picture, and the speaker button reads it aloud, so a child who reads slowly can still play. The aim is to get the child to stop, draw a quick picture, count step by step and talk through what happened. A parent sitting alongside for the first few riddles makes a large difference.
Level 1, Warm-up, asks the child to type a small number: legs on a few hens and cats, gaps in a short fence, pages from one number to another, children in a line when you know how many are in front and behind, and sharing sweets equally. Level 2, Think twice, adds cuts in a log, steps between floors, a sister's age in a few years, posts for a fence with a known number of gaps, and sweets left over. From level 3, Watch the trap, the child chooses from four numbers, and the classic wrong answer is always one of them. Level 3 brings the snail, ages that change over time, handshakes among 3 or 4 friends, socks in the dark, and a line where you are 2nd from the front and 3rd from the back. Level 4, Puzzle solver, uses bigger numbers and two steps, such as heads and legs on a farm, the time to saw a log into more pieces, posts along a fence with a post every few metres, and how many more sweets are needed. Level 5, Riddle master, uses riddles that no lower level has, each needing two ideas at once: socks in the dark when one colour has a single sock, where two children stand in a line, posts around a square garden whose corners are shared, ways to pay with two coins, a walk up the stairs and back down, handshakes when some friends only wave, and the number of digits printed in a book's page numbers.
There are 28 riddle types, and each is a template with random small numbers, so a child meets hundreds of different riddles, not a short list that repeats. The answer is never typed in. It is worked out by a small simulation in the code: it climbs the wall day by day and night by night, walks along the fence post by post, lets each friend arrive and shake hands with everyone already there, and deals sweets out one at a time. The wording is fixed for each type so that the question has one answer. The pictures never show the count that answers the question: a line of children is drawn as just "me" and gaps, so counting the picture cannot give the answer. In the snail riddle, for example, the snail is at the top as soon as it reaches the top during the day, before the night slip. The tests recompute every answer with a second, separate model written only from the numbers in the text, over 500 puzzles at every level, and check that the classic wrong answer is on the screen and different from the right one. After each riddle there is one sentence that explains the trap in plain words.
The Riddle of the Day is one riddle made from the date on your device, so the same date gives the same riddle. The game moves up a level after 3 correct riddles in a row and down after 2 wrong in a row, and you or your child can choose a level by hand. Print a worksheet lets you pick the level, 4, 6 or 8 riddles, and Letter or A4 paper. Each riddle has a picture and space to draw, and the last page is an answer key with the trap explained in a line. New riddles are made every time. Your level and recent results are saved in this browser only. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and no timer.
This game does not teach times tables or column sums, and it does not drill. It has no long reading passages, since each riddle fits in one or two short sentences. Answers are small whole numbers, never fractions or decimals. A wrong answer gets a gentle try-again, never a loud sound. It is also not a substitute for talking: the best result comes when a child explains to you why the first answer was tempting and why it fails.
They are written for ages 6 to 8. Level 1 has small numbers and a picture for every riddle. Levels 4 and 5 use two-step ideas such as 7 animals with 24 legs, which older children and many adults find tricky.
They are worked out in code by simulating the story, such as climbing a wall day by day. The tests then recompute every answer a second way, over 500 puzzles at each of the 5 levels, and they must match.
It is the answer most children give first. For a fence with 6 posts it is 6 gaps, when the right answer is 5. From level 3 the trap is always one of the four choices, so the child has to think rather than guess.
The 28 riddle types stay the same, but the numbers, animals and names change, so a child meets over 400 different riddles. The wording of each type is fixed so that the question is clear.
Yes. Choose the level, 4, 6 or 8 riddles, and Letter or A4. Each riddle has a picture and room to draw, and the last page is an answer key.
It saves the level and the results of the last 5 riddles in this browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere and there is no account. The page counts visits with Google Analytics, never your child's answers.