You could teach them chess variation known as minichess or halfchess. I have created a game halfchess.com for adults - but plan to add a learning mode for children in future.
I have given kids crash course on chess and it starts like this.
1. Ask them, how many squares are there on a board
2. Tell them about Pawns and make them play on a mini chess board with Pawns. Start with 3 pawns and slowly increase to 4,5,...,8.
3. Show them the knight. Some possible games with just knight are as follows:-
a. Puzzles on how one knight can capture another knight placed in nearby squares.
b. Play a game where one knight has to catch the other knight. The knight that is catching takes two steps every move, the running one takes one step.
c. You can play above game with a dice and let two players battle just their knights. Even throw of dice gets 2 turns
And so on, introduce them to new pieces. You can tell them stories about each of the chess piece as you introduce them to it.
There are several mathematical concepts that you can teach children via chess - for example backtracking from a solution (when solving the puzzles with knights).
I have given kids crash course on chess and it starts like this.
1. Ask them, how many squares are there on a board
2. Tell them about Pawns and make them play on a mini chess board with Pawns. Start with 3 pawns and slowly increase to 4,5,...,8.
3. Show them the knight. Some possible games with just knight are as follows:-
And so on, introduce them to new pieces. You can tell them stories about each of the chess piece as you introduce them to it.There are several mathematical concepts that you can teach children via chess - for example backtracking from a solution (when solving the puzzles with knights).