The key numeracy skills for children under 5 are: recognising numbers 1-5, then to 10 and beyond, and putting these numbers in order; talking about one more or less than a given number; counting objects, one at a time; using the language of addition and subtraction using objects; and most importantly, putting these skills into a real problem-solving context.
It’s amazing how quickly toddlers can say the names of many numbers, but teaching them what the numbers mean can take quite a while longer. The understanding of numbers is, of course, crucially important for any child’s future education and life beyond, which is precisely why it is a process that cannot be rushed. As a parent, it’s perfectly possible to nurture and encourage a child’s understanding of numbers from an early age simply by getting them interested in educational activities and games you can play at home.
Here are a few numbers and counting apps to teach your child numbers. These fun number-learning games help Preschoolers to learn and recognise numbers.
Tap and Learn gives kids practice in the basic skills they need to build as a foundation for learning. They’ll match, sort, and count within the thirty different minigames using content such as numbers, shapes, and colours.
- Basic Skills Practice: Provides practice in foundational skills like matching, sorting, and counting using numbers, shapes, and colours.
- Self-contained Purchase: A single in-app purchase unlocks the full content permanently without ongoing demands on the budget.
- Kid-friendly Design: The space-themed interface appeals to children, and the games engage with particle effects and animations.
- Pressure-free Environment: No time limits or penalties for incorrect answers, encouraging experimentation and imagination.
- Suitable for Independent Play and Supported Learning: Works well for independent play and learning between parents and children.
- Limited Content: Although reasonably priced, some users may want more activities and challenges.
- Preschool Focus: Best suited for preschool-age kids rather than those in school.
Devices: Android, iPad and iPhone
If we missed any of the 10 Best Numbers and Counting Apps for Kids, tell us about them!
Baby Shapes & Colors contains fifteen minigames for preschool children to learn about counting numbers, sorting and arranging items by colour and shape. These also include activities that introduce animals and what they eat.
While playing with little number characters, your child will learn numbers. They will master counting and learn the correlation between numbers and quantities.
Pros
- Educational Content: The app contains fifteen minigames designed for preschool children to learn about sorting and arranging items by color and shape. It also introduces concepts related to animals and their diets.
- Colorful Graphics: The app’s colourful and clear graphics encourage kids to play and notice appropriate features within the games.
- Parent-Child Interaction: The games have no time limits or pressures, making them ideal for parents to play alongside their kids. Parents can guide, encourage, and develop their children while sharing the screen.
- Variety of Activities: The content is varied enough that kids should enjoy moving between different games for new experiences.
- No Advertisements or External Links: The app is free from advertisements and external links, ensuring a safe experience for young kids.
- Lack of Spoken Descriptions: The app does not use speech, which means kids learn about shape properties without corresponding names. Playing with parents can alleviate this limitation.
- Limited Independent Learning Value: Due to the lack of spoken descriptions, the app’s independent learning value is restricted. It’s best used alongside parents for supported learning.
Devices: Android, iPad and iPhone
Numberita! is an educational game designed to help kids learn numbers and their names. It helps your toddler to identify numbers and learn to count while feeding friendly monsters who visit the cafe as customers. Young kids using Numberita will enjoy the freedom of learning about the numbers 1 to 100 as they play without ever feeling the sting of failure. Numberita! is also a fun counting game for kids.
Pros
- Montessori-Based Approach: The app follows the Montessori learning method, emphasising learning through play and exploration.
- Virtual Playset: Numberita acts like a virtual cafe-style playset, allowing kids to create games and explore freely.
- Fantastic Presentation: High-quality graphics, animations, and sound create an engaging environment for kids.
- Numbers Up to 100: The app familiarises kids with numbers up to 100 through interactive activities.
- Open-Ended Nature: Kids can use their imagination, experiment, and play without pressure or strict rules.
- Suitable for Young Children: Designed for kids up to age 5, it’s easy to navigate without reading skills.
- Directionless for Some Adults: Structured gamers may find the app lacking clear objectives, but its open-ended design is intentional.
- Limited Activities: While well-designed, additional activities would enhance the app further.
- Not Ideal for Teachers: Most teachers won’t need it due to its target age group (under school age).
Devices: iPad and iPhone
Endless Numbers is an early-level education and children learning numbers app and kids counting game that helps familiarize children with numbers making it one of the best counting apps available. Endless Numbers helps users to visualize numbers, while helping them learn more engaging and interesting types of application. Since this numbers for kids app only allows users to practice numbers up to “25,” we recommend it for children from ages 3 to 6.
In this counting app, kids will have a blast learning number recognition, sequences, quantity, numerical patterns, and simple addition with the adorable Endless monsters.
Pros
- Introduction to numbers: Helps with number recognition, counting, and basic addition.
- Interactive and engaging: Features colourful monsters, animations, and equations to make learning fun.
- Multiple math concepts: Teaches counting by ones, twos, threes, addition, and place value.
- Simple navigation: Suitable for preschoolers.
- Life-like features: Each number has eyes representing tens and ones.
Cons
- In-app purchases: While the free version covers numbers 1-5, additional content requires in-app purchases
Devices: Android, iPad and iPhone
Preschool Math is a collection of games that teach kids about numbers. Kids can recognise and learn how to pronounce numbers with sounds from 1 to 100. This app provides a fun and competitive environment that will entice children to further develop their understanding of numbers.
Preschool Math shows representations of numbers in a variety of useful ways. This app includes cute and colorful characters in the games so kids can learn counting numbers while playing. Teachers and parents will find this app a great way to help their children practice numbers. They're perfect for young learners struggling with numbers.
Pros
- Guided learning: The app guides users through various mathematical topics at their own pace.
- Concrete experiences: It connects abstract math concepts to concrete experiences using graphical illustrations.
- Block modelling: Like Singapore Math, it uses block modelling to solve word problems.
- Variety of algorithms: It employs a variety of algorithms to help students understand the numbering system.
- No in-app purchases or ads: The app is free from in-app purchases and advertisements.
- Limited information: The app lacks details on where it fits into educational curricula for specific age groups.
- Scoring system: Some games lack a scoring system to monitor progress and correct answers.
- Repetitive waiting: Users may find themselves waiting for topics to end due to an excessive number of questions.
- Currency limitation: In the Money topic, there’s no option to change currency.
- Audio instructions repetition: An option to repeat audio instructions would be helpful.
Devices: iPad and iPhone
Designed by teachers for families, Komodo builds a solid foundation in maths for children aged 5 to 11. A qualified maths teacher will personalise a learning plan for your child. A maths teacher sets up each user’s baseline in this numbers for kids app and parents define the rewards. Children then engage in little-and-often practice to raise their maths knowledge and skill.
Komodo’s focus is on mastering arithmetic and mental math/maths because this is the key platform for future success in mathematics. It takes learner through counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication – including times tables, division, fractions, decimals, percentages and many more essential topics.
- Effective Learning: 94% of users see progress after using it.
- Little-and-often Practice: Encourages short, frequent practice sessions (15 minutes, 3-5 times per week).
- Cross-Platform Availability: Works on iOS, Android, PC, Mac, and Kindle Fire.
- Parental Involvement: Parents can set rewards and monitor progress.
- Adaptive System: Adjusts to each child’s needs and allows skipping to appropriate levels.
- Quality Content: Covers essential math topics for ages 5-11.
- Setup Complexity: Setting up the full-featured platform may overwhelm some parents.
- Subscription Cost: Various subscription options are available; yearly math and English subscription offers the best value
Devices: Android, iPad and iPhone
Vegetable Maths Masters is a free maths app using vegetables. Children can practice maths skills whilst playing with real images of vegetables in a fun way which also teaches children about the names of the vegetables and helps to make them more familiar. This numbers for kids app is designed to support maths and also encourage healthy eating, making it one of the best free apps for kids.
Children can trace numbers 1 to 10 with vegetables, count numbers 1 to 10 by feeding vegetables, match the number of vegetables in a card game, learn addition and subtraction, and basic fractions with vegetables. Experts designed this kids' counting game to help with maths practice and develop positive attitudes to eating vegetables.
Pros
- Maths Practice: The app supports young children in learning the basics of maths through a series of mini-games.
- Positive Attitude Towards Vegetables: By associating vegetables with rewards for success, the app challenges the negative view of vegetables.
- Engaging Gameplay: The games are fun, engaging and cover useful topics for practice.
- High Quality: The app’s design, visuals, and sound are well-executed.
- Free and Ad-Free: The app is free to download, contains no ads, and has no in-app purchases.
- Limited Impact on Vegetable Perception: While it associates vegetables with rewards, it may not fully counter negative perceptions of vegetables.
Devices: Android, iPad and iPhone
Monster Numbers is a fun, engaging and addictive math game and children learning numbers app designed to improve your kids math skills. This counting app is an engaging games-based kid and counting app that combines game play and mathematical learning. Children must help Tob recover parts of his spaceship, by completing levels and chapters throughout the game, in order to escape from the strange planet he has landed on. Each games allows children to learn and practice a new mathematical skill based on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division making it one of the best counting apps available.
- Engaging Gameplay: The app combines gameplay with mathematical learning, making it engaging for children.
- Skill-Based Learning: Each chapter focuses on a specific mathematical skill (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), allowing children to learn and practice.
- Clear Instructions: New skills are introduced clearly through on-screen instructions and graphical illustrations.
- Responsive Graphics: The app’s graphics are excellent and responsive to children’s prompts.
- Free Version Available: The full app is free on both Android and iOS, providing an opportunity to try it out without cost.
- Segregation of Math and Gameplay: While the app claims to mix math practice with gameplay, it often segregates them. Incorporating math concepts throughout the game would enhance its educational value.
- Advertisements: The free version contains advertisements, which may distract from learning. An ad-free version is available for purchase.
Devices: Android, iPad and iPhone
9. Montessori Maths: Add & Subtract Large Numbers
(Android, iPhone, iPad)
Montessori Math: Add, Subtract is one of the best kindergarten apps available in the App Store. Children will work on a variety of activities championed by the Montessori program.
Kids can learn the concepts and methods behind adding and subtracting large numbers, including carrying and borrowing. Kids can also learn to apply the Base 10 system to problems involving larger numbers, and practice using the Montessori system of colour-coding. As kids work to solve larger addition and subtraction problems and play the games under time pressure, they also grow in math operations proficiency and speed.
- Makes learning about addition and subtraction fun.
- Child-friendly graphics
- Limited feedback to incorrect answers
Devices: Android, iPad and iPhone
Marble Math is super fun and easy for kids to use. It includes features that parents and teachers will love, like the ability to replay games so students build confidence as they work up to the correct answer.
Kids can learn shape recognition, sequencing, number values, fractions, ordinals, addition, subtraction, and multiplication from simple problems up to 100. Kids can also practice their money and time skills. Decision-making and strategy skills are inherent in this game as kids move their marbles through the maze. Marble Math Junior is an exceptionally fun way to practice math.
- Engaging Learning: Provides an entertaining way for kids to practice math skills through mazes and marble manipulation.
- Customizable: Parents and teachers can set specific skills for practice.
- Confidence Building: Allows replaying games to build confidence as children work toward correct answers.
- Obstacles and Rewards: The game’s obstacles and rewards may distract from the educational purpose.
Devices: iPad and iPhone
Math Knowledge Hub
