Red Envelope Math: free Lunar New Year sharing game

What is Red Envelope Math?

It's the Lunar New Year, and Zip is in charge of the red envelopes. Grandma, Grandpa, the aunties and uncles all hand over lucky money, and every envelope has to be fair. Ten questions: equal shares, leftovers, pooled gifts, shares by parts, two envelopes to even out. All amounts are made up.

Red Envelope Math is a free Lunar New Year math game. At the New Year, many families give children red envelopes of lucky money, called hóngbāo, lai see or lì xì depending on the language. In the game, Zip is in charge of the envelopes, and every one has to be fair.

Ten short questions get harder as you go: share one gift equally, pool two gifts and share them, deal with coins left over, even out two envelopes that were filled in a hurry, follow a family rule where older children get two parts, and work backwards to the starting amount. Every answer shows the working, and all names and amounts are made up.

At a glance

Category

Seasonal

Difficulty

Easy

Play time

2–4 min

Price

Free, in your browser, sign-up optional

How to play

Read the story

Who's giving, how much, and for how many children. The coin badge shows the total.

Pick the fair answer

Four answers, one right. Tap it or press 1 to 4. Every answer shows the working, so you learn the method.

Three lives

A wrong answer costs a life. Ten envelopes, getting harder: leftovers, family rules, working backwards.

Score

100 per right answer, plus 20 for each one in a row before it (up to +80). A perfect run is 1,600.

Scoring

100 points per right answer, plus 20 for each right answer in a row before it (up to +80). A perfect run of 10 envelopes scores 1,600.

No clock: a wrong answer costs one of 3 lives, and every answer shows the working.

What it trains

Division

Equal shares, remainders and checking with multiplication.

Fair sharing

Pooling gifts, evening out two amounts and sharing by parts.

Working backwards

Finding the starting amount or what's still missing.

Strategy and tips

Check with multiplication

If 4 envelopes hold 22 each, 4 × 22 should give back the total of 88.

Add before you share

When two people give, pool the money first, then divide once.

Leftovers are smaller than the group

With 5 children, the leftover is always 0 to 4 coins. More than that and everyone could get one more.

Move half the gap

To even out 42 and 22, move 10, not 20: moving the whole gap just flips who has more.

Count parts, not people

Two older children at 2 parts and one younger at 1 part make 5 parts. Find one part first.

Why play Red Envelope Math?

Fair sharing is division in real life: splitting a bill, dividing chores, sharing sweets. Red Envelope Math practises the steps behind it (divide, check with multiplication, handle what's left over, share by parts) in short family stories, so the method sticks along with the answer.

Frequently asked questions