Does my child have to answer questions to play?

No. Standard mode is ordinary tic tac toe and is what the game opens on, so a square is simply taken by tapping it. The Adding and Times tables modes are there for when you want the game to double as practice, and switching is one tap.

Can two children play on the same device?

Yes, that is what the two player setting is for. They take turns on one screen, X and O, and each has to answer a fact to claim a square. It works well on a tablet between two children at a table.

Is the computer unbeatable?

No, and that is deliberate. It takes a winning square when it has one and blocks yours when you have two in a row, but it does not play the perfect game. A perfect tic tac toe opponent can never be beaten, which stops being a game very quickly for a child.

My child knows the answers but still loses. Why?

Tic tac toe is a second skill on top of the facts. Winning needs them to look at what the other player is building, not only at the square they want. Ask them out loud where the other player could win next, and the blocking habit usually appears within a game or two.

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Math Tic Tac Toe

Three in a row, with or without the math.

Grades 1-5 · Thinking a move ahead, and optionally a fact per square

How to play

1Choose two players, or play against the computer.
2Standard is ordinary tic tac toe: tap a square and it is yours.
3Switch to Adding or Times tables and a square has to be earned: answer the fact to claim it.
4Get a fact wrong and the square stays open, but your turn is over.

Try a few

You tap the middle square and get 6 x 7
Answer: 42
Six sevens. If 6 x 6 = 36 is the one your child knows, this is one more group of six, so 36 + 6 = 42. Rebuilding from a nearby fact is faster than counting and it is the habit worth having.
On the adding setting you get 8 + 7
Answer: 15
Make a ten first. Take 2 from the 7 to turn the 8 into 10, then add the 5 that is left: 10 + 5 = 15. That is quicker than counting on seven and far less likely to slip.
The other player has two in a row and it is your turn
Answer: Block, even if the other square is easier
The board matters as much as the fact. A child who only chases squares they find easy will lose to a child who is watching the lines. Answer the fact on the square that stops the line.

Why this game helps

Standard tic tac toe is not a maths exercise and is worth playing anyway. Winning needs a child to look a move ahead, spot the line the other player is quietly building, and choose between blocking it and pushing their own. That is planning under a constraint, and it is the same habit that later makes a child check whether an answer is plausible instead of writing down the first thing they get. The two fact modes add the arithmetic on top: a square has to be earned by answering, and the board becomes the reason to do it. A child who will not sit through a page of times tables will answer twenty of them to take the middle square off a sibling, and the facts are the same either way. Doing both at once, holding a plan while recalling a fact, is harder than either alone, which is rather the point. Against the computer the opponent takes a win and blocks a loss but is beatable on purpose, because an opponent that never loses stops being a game and becomes a wall.

If your child finds this hard

If a wrong answer feels crushing, remember the square stays open. Nothing is lost except the turn, so the same square can be won back on the next go. Say that out loud once at the start and most of the sting goes.

When a child freezes on a fact under the pressure of a turn, the problem is usually not the fact but the clock in their head. Switch to the adding setting for a few games, or play two players so the pace is set by a person rather than a countdown. Speed is worth chasing only on facts that are already understood.

A child who loses every game against the computer is not being beaten by better play, they are being beaten by the first move. The computer takes the centre when it can, so let your child go first and take the centre themselves, and the games get much closer.

Common questions

Does my child have to answer questions to play?: No. Standard mode is ordinary tic tac toe and is what the game opens on, so a square is simply taken by tapping it. The Adding and Times tables modes are there for when you want the game to double as practice, and switching is one tap.
Can two children play on the same device?: Yes, that is what the two player setting is for. They take turns on one screen, X and O, and each has to answer a fact to claim a square. It works well on a tablet between two children at a table.
Is the computer unbeatable?: No, and that is deliberate. It takes a winning square when it has one and blocks yours when you have two in a row, but it does not play the perfect game. A perfect tic tac toe opponent can never be beaten, which stops being a game very quickly for a child.
My child knows the answers but still loses. Why?: Tic tac toe is a second skill on top of the facts. Winning needs them to look at what the other player is building, not only at the square they want. Ask them out loud where the other player could win next, and the blocking habit usually appears within a game or two.

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