Monkey Math Game, Simple Addition Game for Kids

This is a fun game to teach kids addition and subtraction. My son (4) loves to play with this game on his own, trying to make the monkey's eyes straight, and with me. When playing with me, we try to "trick" each other by putting up multiple groups of bananas and the other one tries to match up with the same amount. There are two each of 1-5, and then one each of 6-10. The packaging is nice too, and you can get all of the bananas back in (they go in numerical order, so its an extra teaching moment while cleaning up) and the monkey in the plastic, and it fits nicely in the box. No lost pieces! My son also likes to sometimes play "catch the bananas" with this monkey, loading the monkey's arms with bananas and then flipping one arm until they all fly into the air. Not my favorite part, but he likes it.

I love this scale. My students love the monkey. It grabs their attention. This is a perfect step between concrete manipulation of items to the abstract use of numbers. Students still have the bananas to count while seeing the numbers. We write some higher-level equations and use the monkey to help us solve for the missing addend. I would not leave students unsupervised with this item because it does have some breakable parts.

My daughter picked this out of Rainbow Resources' catalog, probably because it involved monkeys!The game puts together very easily. The monkey is essentially a scale and your child needs to hang bunches of bananas on each of his arms to balance him out. They are perfectly calibrated to make this work every time...as long as both sides equal each other. And that's where the math comes in. My daughter is in first grade and is still learning her tens addition facts, so this toy was helpful and fun. Even her big brothers got a kick out of it. It is not something she would enjoy doing for a long time, as she lost interest...it's more the type of toy to pull out every once in awhile when math is getting boring. It's very durable, attractive and appealing to young children.

I got this for my 5-year old son. He seems to enjoy it, but it lags behind his other favorites. I think a big problem is that there's no competitive game aspect. It's just a game that makes it easy - and fun? - to do simple math problems. There is no set game plan, just long instructions on ways to introduce math concepts. I contrast this to "Sum Swamp" - a math-based board game that my son just loves: that one teaches math concepts and grammar (x + y = ?) AND has a traditional board game-style competition.

Every now and then daughter brings this out. It isn't a game that she will spend lots of time with. But, she is amazing with her addition, particularly for a 4-year-old. Just yesterday morning she suggested that we see how many ways she could balance the 10 bananas. This is like a more fun version of a scale.For the lower age range I'd say "Past eating toys"

My 5-year-old loves this! I'm not sure it's actually a "game" per say, but it keeps him engaged for lengthy periods of time. He has fun with the balancing factor and is also quickly picking up the idea of fact families and how to balance simple equations. Great math tool for Kindergarten, and even our 2 and 6 year olds enjoy playing, too.

This plastic toy is cute and fun for children that are ready and willing to learn; too that get a kick out of monkeys! The banana bunches are conveniently sized and can be counted with little fingers. The eyes "move" when off balance or being balanced, and that helps encourage application. Box says not for 0-3, and it does seem to be geared toward 4+ years. Until the child is familiar, parent participation strongly encouraged.

Fun and educational but it only holds my son’s Attention for a few minutes