We make Mathumo, a math app for children aged 4 to 8, and we also keep a set of free math games on our website, mathumo.academy. They run in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer. There’s nothing to install and no account to make, there are no ads, and the game pages don’t collect anything about the child playing. We left out timers and lives on purpose: we’d rather a child stop and think than hurry.

The games are grouped by age below. The ages are a rough guide, so let your child try a level down or up.

Free math games for preschool and kindergarten

Count and Tap (ages 3 to 6). Tap each bug once to count it, then say how many, up to 5, 10 or 20. Touching each thing exactly once is the hard part of early counting, and this game is all about it.

Shape Pop (ages 3 to 6). Pop every bubble that holds the shape Mathumo asks for: circles, squares, triangles and more.

Number Path (ages 4 to 6). Help Mathumo across by stepping on the stones in number order, counting forward or back to 20.

Tangram Workshop (ages 4 to 8). Fill a picture with shapes by sliding, turning and flipping them. It starts with simple shapes and works up to the classic seven pieces.

Sudoku for Kids (ages 4 to 8). Every row and column holds each shape or number once. Start with 3×3 shapes, then try 4×4 and 6×6 numbers. Each puzzle has one answer.

Tic-Tac-Toe (ages 4 to 8). Play a friend on the same device, or play Mathumo at three strengths.

Math games for kindergarten and first grade

Sum Rockets (ages 5 to 7). Solve each rocket’s sum, within 10 or 20, to launch it. Launch ten to light up the sky.

Make Ten Match (ages 5 to 7). Match two cards that add up to 10, like 3 and 7. There are make 5 and make 20 boards too.

Number Bonds (ages 5 to 8). Join touching tiles so they add up to the target: make 5, make 10 or make 20, or build doubles. This one comes straight from the Mathumo app.

Hop Back (ages 5 to 8). Subtraction on a number line: start on the first number and hop back. Where you land is the answer.

Shut the Box (ages 5 to 8). A traditional dice game and one of our favorite ways to practice addition. Roll the dice, then close tiles that add up to the roll. Close every tile and you’ve shut the box.

Numberlink (ages 5 to 8). Join each pair of matching numbers with a path. Paths can’t cross, and together they fill every square.

Four in a Row (ages 5 to 8). Drop tokens into the columns and make a line of four before Mathumo does. A small three-in-a-row board helps beginners.

Math games for first and second grade

River Race (ages 6 to 8). Race Mathumo down the river. Each two-digit sum you solve paddles your boat forward, one turn at a time.

Coin Shop (ages 6 to 8). Run a shop: tap coins to pay for each treat, then give change, with US coins or UK coins.

Equal Groups (ages 6 to 8). Share cookies fairly onto plates, build arrays in rows, then count the groups. Three plates of four cookies make twelve, which is multiplication before anyone mentions times tables.

Fraction Kitchen (ages 6 to 8). Cut pizzas and pies into equal parts and serve the fraction on the order: a half, a third or a quarter.

Checkers (ages 6 to 8). Move diagonally, jump to capture and crown a king. Start on a mini 6×6 board, then move up to the classic 8×8.

Free math tools for parents and teachers

The site also has five free tools for the kitchen table or the classroom: a ten frame, a 100 chart that lights up counting by 2s, 5s and 10s, a number line with jumps, an analog clock you can set, and a place value chart with base ten blocks.

Getting more out of free math games

• Play the first round together, and ask your child to say what they’re doing: “I’m closing the 4 and the 2 because that makes 6.”
• Stop while it’s still fun. Ten minutes that end with “can we play again tomorrow?” beat forty that end in tears.
• Take a game off the screen. Shut the Box needs two dice and a strip of paper numbered 1 to 9. Coin Shop works with real coins and a few toys with price tags.
• Praise the strategy, not the speed. A child who checks an answer by counting on their fingers is doing the right thing.

All 18 games are on one page at mathumo.academy/games, and there are pages by grade: preschool, kindergarten, first grade and second grade.

About the Mathumo app

If your child enjoys these, the Mathumo app for iPhone and iPad has a full journey of hands-on lessons for ages 4 to 8, with Shut the Box, Number Bonds, Sudoku, Tangram Workshop and the other logic games in its Games tab. There are no ads, and learning progress stays on your device. More at mathumo.academy/app.

Ask a four-year-old to count to ten and you will probably hear all ten numbers, in order, with some pride. Then put seven buttons on the table and ask how many there are. Some children count one button twice. Some skip one. Some answer “ten”, because ten is where the counting song ends.

At that age, saying the numbers and knowing how many are two separate skills. The second one, that the last number you say tells you how many things there are, comes from moving real things around: buttons, blocks, spoons, fingers. Worksheets and flashcards jump over that step to the written number and check whether the child can produce the right symbol.

Plenty of math games for young children work the same way, with sound effects added. A sum appears, four answers appear, the child taps one. A quick guesser can look like a child who understands, and the score can’t tell them apart. We built Mathumo to start one step earlier, with the things children can move.

What Mathumo is

Mathumo is a math app for kids aged 4 to 8, for iPhone and iPad. It covers the math from preschool to second grade: counting and numbers, adding and taking away, shapes, measuring, time, money, place value, early multiplication and fractions, up to numbers to 1,000. It is built on US standards: Common Core (K–2) and Head Start (Preschool), with topics from England’s national curriculum for the same ages.

The lessons sit on a path we call the journey. At the start, a parent answers a few questions about their child, and the journey begins at a sensible place for that child instead of at “count to 3” for everyone.

What a lesson looks like

Every new idea starts with something to move, then becomes a picture, and only then a written number. A child learning that 7 is 5 and 2 drags counters into a ten frame and sees a full row of five with two more below it. The same idea comes back later as a picture, and later still as 5 + 2 = 7.

In lessons, children answer by doing things: moving counters, filling ten frames, placing numbers on a number line, cutting shapes into equal parts. When they think they have it, they press Check.

The first time a new kind of activity appears, Mathumo shows how it works with a see-through fingertip, and the child has a go straight after. That first try never counts.

Wrong answers get help instead of a buzzer. The help comes in four steps: a highlight, then the first step, then a more hands-on model, and if the child still needs it, Mathumo works through the answer with them.

Each session mixes new learning with review. A skill comes back after a day, a few days, a week and longer. It counts as mastered only after the child gets it right in two different kinds of activity across two sessions, and speed never counts against them.

Games next to the lessons

The app has a Games tab with math and logic games: Shut the Box, Number Bonds, Sudoku, Tangram Workshop, Numberlink, Tic-Tac-Toe, Four in a Row, Checkers and more. We treat them as practice, not as a prize for finishing a lesson. Shut the Box is addition with dice. Sudoku and Numberlink are planning and spatial reasoning with a clear goal.

There is also a short daily goal, counted in minutes of real activity rather than taps, with a starting length that depends on the child’s age. A streak shows how many days in a row your child has come back.

What we left out

There are no ads. Your child’s learning progress stays on your device, and the app works offline. Settings, links and purchases sit behind a grown-up check, so a child playing alone doesn’t run into buttons that lead to a store or a web page.

Try the games first

You don’t need the app to see how we think about early math. Our website has 18 free math games for kids that run in any browser, with no sign-up, no ads and no timers. Shut the Box, Number Bonds, Sudoku, Tangram Workshop and Numberlink are the same games your child would find in the app. The others cover counting, shapes, addition, subtraction, money, multiplication and fractions. There are free tools too: a ten frame, a 100 chart, a number line, a clock and a place value chart.

• Free math games: mathumo.academy/games
• How a Mathumo lesson works: mathumo.academy/how-it-works
• The app: mathumo.academy/app

If you try the games with your child, tell us what worked and what didn’t at support@mathumo.academy.