I want my children to love math. A crazy goal, but it's mine, and I'm sticking to it. I've been quite entranced with reading the Living Math website lately, pondering games and books and actions to help math always be tied into a solid real-world understanding.

When I was a student, I found many of the math games to be rather lacking as games went. (Games meant to be games that incidentally involved math, however, were always great, particularly Cribbage, Monopoly, and our all-time favorite, The Farming Game.) One in particular was given the dreary title of "Budget," and involved going round and round the board, making and spending money in a purportedly realistic fashion.

It was still better than school, and I think I felt a sort of moral obligation to play all the games in the cupboard so none would feel neglected. So one afternoon my brother and I played it. Since the game lacked money, we had to keep score on paper.

After several rounds, I noticed an odd phenomenon. While I was still struggling paycheck to paycheck, my brother was rapidly becoming a multi-millionaire. He did seem to be having better luck than I, but that still didn't explain the long lines of zeros I could see on his paper.

Finally I demanded a look at his books. I puzzled over it for a few minutes, and then it dawned on me: Every time he received money in the game, he was multiplying it. He steadily maintained that this was done out of sheer ignorance, but I continue to have my doubts.

And thus, quite unintentionally, I learned about auditing.

On a slightly related note, lately DOB and I have developed a card game that requires use of all four operations, negative numbers, and prime numbers. It's also quite fun--at least we think so. But you do have to keep an eye on your opponent's math. Rules for "Pemberley" are here.