Related to what the article mentions, about playing cards, I tried to get my kids into doing basic arithmetic by playing "scopa"[0] with them.

Turns out, the one who didn't like math didn't like the game either, and the one who did like math liked the game too.

So I'm not totally convinced you can just "trick" kids into liking maths, tho for sure it's a way to get them to exercise.

[0] Scopa: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopa