The best maths apps for children

There are some great educational apps available for the iPad and iPhone, but how on earth do you make Maths fun? [Updated November 7, 2016.]

Maths is boring, right? Well, actually, no. But the way most of us are taught maths certainly can be dull. To get to grips with maths you need to master the basics, and that means learning lots of simple sums off by heart: 2 x 7 = 14, 5 + 4 = 9, 33 divided by 3 is 11, etc.

See also: Best tablet for children

We have to memorise all the main addition, subtraction, multiplication and division basics because otherwise we’d spend large proportions of the day counting on our fingers and toes.

There’s one thing more boring than just learning times tables off by heart, and that’s sitting there teaching a child to learn times tables off by heart.

Thank goodness then for smartphone apps and tablet apps that make learning basic maths not only easy but fun, too. We’ve also rounded up the best apps for learning to tell the time.

I’m not advocating parents abandoning their children armed with an iPhone or Android tablet, and hoping the app does all the work.

At least to start with a parent or other person versed in more than elementary maths needs to be with the child and guide them through the process and help out with the sums. There are tricks for different times tables, for example, that you can teach the child to make the whole process easier.

There are plenty of iPhone, iPad and Android apps to help your child learn basic maths, and we’ve picked a bunch of the best here. Mainly we’ve looked at maths games apps aimed at primary/elementary school children, aged 5-12, but also a few for younger maths beginners. We’ve reviewed some in more detail. Click on the links to read our full reviews of these maths apps. But what you need to know should be included here. We have noted which work with iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

As ability and age have a bearing on which apps are best for your kids we’ve divided the list into levels: Beginners’ Maths Apps and Older Maths Apps. Some are relevant for both groups and will adapt to the child’s learning skills. See also: Best Phonics Apps for kids

Beginners’ Maths Apps: up to age 5

These apps are great for kids just starting out on maths. Also take a look at the Older Maths Apps level list further down as some start quite basic but grow with the child. Don’t overwhelm kids with maths they don’t yet understand but talk them through what they’re going to do so they feel more confident. Many of these games are a lot of fun and so will entertain as well as educate.

Kids Academy · 123 Tracing

£2.99. iPhone, iPad, Android

Before you can do any maths you need to be able to recognize and write the numbers.

Kids Academy 123 Tracing, for the younger children, helps little ones learn to do just that by using the iPad’s touchscreen. Children are introduced to the numbers and shown how to draw them using their finger. The numbers fill the screen so are suitably large format, and the tracing points well laid out.

Successful number writing is rewarded not just by the app’s jolly words of encouragement but also with virtual fireflies in a jar, which can be released each time the numbers have been completed.

There’s a Parent Mode, where you can check the progress of each child assigned a profile. And you can change the voice (male or female) and sounds here, too.

The initial iPhone and iPad versions of the app are free but limited to a few numbers. Parents must dip into their pockets for £2.49 for all ten numbers to trace on iPhone or iPad. Android-using parents pay £1.95. Why the price discrepancy?

While £2.49 isn’t a huge amount to fork out to help your child get to grips with writing it is a little on the high side for an app. The company’s ABC Alphabet Phonics tracing app costs just £1.99 for 26 letters (£1.95 on Android), making the £2.49 for 10 numbers seem steep.

Number Monster

£2.29. iPhone, iPad, Android

One for the very early learners, Number Monster (from Wombi) is a simple app that teaches kids to recognise numbers – from 1-20. It’s friendly and easy for kids to pick up. Parents can turn on and off visual clues as their child progresses. It doesn’t go much further than that so is a little expensive for what it offers.

There’s also a Shape Monster games (at the time of writing this was offered for free). Like Number Monster it’s easy and friendly, and can be set at different levels up to hexagons and pentagons from a start with squares and circles, etc.

Wombi also offers Colour Monster and Letter Monster apps, and a simple telling-the-time app called Around The Clock.

Wee Kids Math

£1.99. iPhone, iPad

Wee Kids Math (from Ebooks & Kids) has a whole bunch of colourful games to teach kids about numbers and basic maths. This app is good for children just starting to learn their number shapes and order (0-20), up to those starting out on addition and subtraction. It’s not really for those who have grasped these concepts already.

There’s plenty of variety – and that’s important when encouraging kids to like maths – and the games are simple to get the hang of despite a lack of instruction from the developers. I’d have preferred a little more help when starting the game, as you have to guess what to do on each new game.

There are many varied games to play, including all the kids favourites such as insects and other animals, and space arcade games.

One other gripe is that the number ‘3’ in all games looks too much like an ‘8’ on a small screen, which can be confusing. Lesson to developers: don’t needlessly confuse your young users.

These criticisms aside Wee Kids Math is a fun addition (geddit?) to your maths app library, and teaches a lot of basic concepts in a fun and engaging way.

EduGuru Maths

£1.99. iPhone, iPad, Android

EduGuru Maths is aimed at kids aged 3-5, so pre-school and Reception or Year 1 pupils. EduGuru states that it is designed for the development and care of pre-school children in England, the Foundation Phase in Wales and the Early Years Foundation in Scotland.

Based around cute animations of animals, rockets and friendly characters EduGuru Maths tests most early mathematical concepts and skills such as counting, number recognition and ordering in Cosmic Counting, and addition and subtraction in the Meadows Maths game.

The Shape Sort and Match Up games look at patterns, shapes, sequences and colours. Money Pig uses UK coins to teach money and values. Space Solver tackles matching, doubling, halving and sharing. Fishing Fun looks at size, weight, distance and position. And there’s even telling the time with Captain Clock.

Each game is made up of levels that are unlocked when the previous level is completed. There’s a lot in EduGuru Maths, and the games are fast enough to stop the little learners getting bored. Bored of maths? Hard to believe but apparently  this is possible.

There’s a free lite version but we’d recommend the £1.99 cost as very good value for money for the range of maths activities included.

Marbotic Smart Numbers

£29.99. iPad, Android tablets

Connected app toys such as Marbotic Smart Numbers and Tiggly Math both claim to obey the ethos of Montessori teaching by bringing physical objects back into learning. This is especially true for early learners.

Smart Numbers includes ten wooden numbers, which are chunky (about two inches high) so a child gets to really engage with the shape to aid recognition. The child places the numbers on to the tablet screen, which recognizes the shape and allows kids to learn to recognize the shapes, count in order, and add numbers together.

There are three apps are included: “10+ Fingers” is the starter app, as described above. “Up to 100” introduces number combinations for counting above 9. “More or Less” takes things a step further with Addition and Subtraction using the Golden Bead method and the wooden numbers.

I wish I’d had Smart Numbers and these apps when my daughter was pre-school. She did attend a Montessori primary school, so the methods used here are very recognizable to me. We prefer Smart Numbers to the more basic Tiggly Math. Read our full Marbotic Smart Numbers review.

You can buy Smart Numbers direct from Marbotic (€34.99 plus shipping), and from retailers such as Amazon.

Tiggly Math

£24.95. iPad, Android tablets

Tiggly Math brings together physical objects and the digital app. It’s aimed at kids aged 3-7, but we’d suggest it’s towards the lower end of that age scale.

Rather than number shapes Tiggly Math comes with five coloured blocks, from one to five. You also get a handy pouch to keep the blocks from getting lost.

There are three apps. Cardtoons teaches counting with simple stories. Tiggly Chef is also basic, and is meant to encourage addition, but is rather repetitive and I’m sure kids would soon tire of it. A timer or something else to spice up the Chef’s recipes would pep it up a bit.

Addventure is more fun, but again is a little slow for older children, which is why I’d peg Tiggly Math at around ages five rather than seven. This app takes numeracy further than the other two, but there’s little in the way of explanation – you either get it right, or are given the chance to try again.

The fact that it’s called Math rather than Maths gives away its American roots. Despite the UK flag on the language settings the accent is American, which from an educational point of view isn’t ideal.

With its number blocks Tiggly Math adds something new to standard maths tablet apps, but we prefer Marbotic Smart Numbers, which is more of a fun challenge. Tiggly Math is maybe too slow for children aged above four or five and lacks any real explanation as to why something is right or wrong.

You can buy Tiggly Math at the Apple Store or online from retailers such as Amazon.

Math Tales – The Jungle

£2.29. iPhone, iPad

Math Tales – The Jungle aims to teach maths and logics subjects to pre-schoolers through a story linking various mathematical subjects.

It combines a fun, rhyming tale with 27 games of math and logics subjects, grouped into nine chapters, including learning colours, numbers and other key subjects.

The game develops six specific learning objectives (colours, numbers, maths operations, logic, visual attention, and spatial perception) that can be monitored from a dedicated parents’ area, where they can see what their kids are learning while playing.

Math Tales – The Jungle is colourful and fun, and well designed so should keep the interest of kids under 5 with its engaging story.

Best Maths apps for primary school children and above

Some of these maths apps will work for younger kids, too, but will grow in use as your child gets older. Getting the Times Tables right is super important in developing maths skills, and there are some great apps here that help that, and push on through addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, geometry, fractions, decimals, measurements, graphs, algebra and so on.

Math Bingo

£1.49, iPhone, iPad and Android

Play the game that’s all about numbers to learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide: yes, Bingo.

Math Bingo sets a bunch of questions dependent on your choice and the level of your child’s maths skills. A timer ticks away so you’re out to beat your personal best time each go. To start we’d advise disregarding the clock as this can put undue pressure on the child.

Math Bingo is colourful and features a collection of weird bug aliens to make maths even more fun. Kids love to win the Bingo Bugs and they can then use them in a game of Bingo Bug Bungie – a sort of pinball game where you fire your collected bugs to knockout coins to beat your highest score. It’s enough to make even reluctant mathematicians have another go at multiplication!

Within Math Bingo there are now two new games you can play after completing a Bingo board: Math Stack and Math Fling.

Times tables: Squeebles Multiplication

69p, iPhone, iPad and Android

Squeebles Times Tables 2

£2.99, iPhone, iPad and Android

Master the times tables with the help of Whizz, defeat the nasty Maths Monster, and collect little Squeeble characters, trophies and stars as you learn.

Like Math Bingo, Times Tables: Squeebles Multiplication is a colourful app that makes learning fun.

There’s no timer so your child isn’t rushed into guessing, and they’ll love collecting all the game rewards. It’s a great way to test kids on their multiplication and times tables.

UPDATE: There’s now a new £1.49 version called Squeebles Times Tables 2, which features an expanded reward system, fun mini game, six tables modes, unlimited players and plenty of stats and reporting for parents and teachers – again thankfully without any in-app purchases or adverts. It’s great for testing kids on their times tables and reqrding them for getting them right.

There are other Squeebles apps for addition, division, etc. See the Key Stage Fun Squeebles website for details of all on offer. Each of these are really worth the investment, but try out on one first to check your child finds it fun, too.

Mr Thorne

Mr Thorne’s Times Table Terra

Mr Thorne’s Divide + Conquer

Mr Thorne’s Addition Space Station

All £1.49, iPhone, iPad

London teacher Christopher Thorne must be one of the coolest Sirs on the planet (although he does appear to own several pairs of Timmy Mallet-like specs), and he uses the planets as the theme for his three maths apps: Mr Thorne’s Times Table Terra, Mr Thorne’s Divide + Conquer, and Mr Thorne’s Addition Space Station.

The apps are simple and look gorgeous – sure to be a hit with boys as well as girls.

When you score 10 out of 10 on a particular addition, times table or division test you get to keep a space station or planet, depending on the app you’re using. There’s a mystery challenge when you’ve unlocked all the tests, which is an extra incentive – and different to the Squeebles and Math Bingo reward games.

Each game has three levels: Beginner/Newcomer, First Class/Elite and World Class/Legend. The top level is going to test adults, too, so you can join in the sum fun.

Mr Thorne’s Addition Space Station has 42 mental maths tests, which includes adding multiple numbers, decimals and fractions so is suitable for children aged 5-11.

Mr Thorne’s Times Table Terra features 60 tests based on basic multiplication and times tables. They also feature video tutorials from Mr Thorne himself.

Mr Thorne’s Divide + Conquer has 50 maths tests based on division and inverse times tables.

I recommend all the Mr Thorne maths apps, as they’re simple to use, look great, and should really engage kids in these maths basics.

Let’s Do Mental Maths

£2.29, iPhone, iPad

Let’s Do Mental Maths for iPhone and iPad are also recommended. They’re a great way to monitor your kids’ progress at maths and test most maths categories.

Andrew Brodie, educational author and former teacher, teamed up with Bloomsbury and Aimer Media to create the Let’s Do Mental Maths apps; aimed at 5-6, 7-8, 8-9, 9-10 and 10-11 years olds. The 7-8 app recently won the Futurebook Innovation Award for the best children’s non-fiction digital book, credited with “using the digital experience to take on a subject that was ‘hard to tackle’.”

They are designed to support the latest National Curriculum requirements and have been developed alongside children in classrooms to help boost children’s confidence.

Let’s Do Mental Maths uses an engaging quiz format with a cartoon Digit the Dog, who can offer advice when the player gets stuck. 

There are three main quiz areas:

Starter questions to warm up the kids’ maths skills – a quick selection of random questions, uniquely combined every time.

Progress tests are made up of 7 sets of 20 questions to grade maths ability and track players’ scores – matched to National Curriculum expected progress.

Practice quizzes consist of nine categories of practice questions: Place Value, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Fractions, Times, Measure and Shape.

There is a simple Results dashboard that includes the percentage and number of correct answers as well as the time taken to answer

The Let’s Do Mental Maths apps are a nice mix of maths tasks that don’t try too hard with gimmicks but still look like fun, and get children ready for their SATs. Recommended.

Compatible with iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch all the apps can be purchased in the iTunes App Store, either individually for £1.99, or at £4.99 for all six apps within the series.

Operation Math

£2.29, iPhone, iPad and Android

This spy game puts the player as a secret agent battling the evil Dr Odd. You get new uniforms and spy gear for each mission completed. Like the other maths apps here you set your challenges depending on the level of maths skills of the child.

This game is all about beating the clock, so try it first in training mode when the player has more time to think about the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division equations.

The spy theme is a great idea for making maths a fun adventure.

YodelOh Math Mountain School Edition

Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division Practice for Kids

£2.29, iPhone, iPad

From the same team as Operation Math comes a real oddity: YodelOh Math Mountain, an Alpine maths game. This quirky game fires sums at you as an Alpine gent slowly climbs the mountain. You can choose addition subtraction (both for numbers 1-20), multiplication, division (numbers 1-12) or a mix, and you have a multiple-choice selection. You need to score as many points as possible before the lederhosen-wearing Hans drops off the cliff.

It’s really rather barking mad, with maths-crazed sheep butting Hans in the behind, and various other surprises.It’s so different that it makes a change from some of the quieter games we are reviewing here.

It features graduated difficulty, with questions getting harder at every level, as well as developmental skill building with kids having to priortise visual infomration and make quick decisions.

YodelOh Math Mountain could easily get addictive.

MathBoard

£3.99, iPad, iPhone and Android

Although more expensive than most maths apps MathBoard can be easily configured for school children of all ages, beginning with simple addition and subtraction problems, multiplication and division, and algebra.

The blackboard theme is cute, although most kids won’t come anywhere a blackboard in school these days.

It is built around multiple choice but encourages working out solutions with a neat scratchboard area where pupils can chalk their sums.

MathBoard’s Problem Solver walks students through the steps required to solve the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division equations. There are also quick reference tables to hand.

We especially like the configurable nature of MathBoard, where you can determine number ranges, omit negative answers, etc.

Activities and quizzes can be timed, either as a countdown timer or elapsed time.

There’s a free version that tackles addition only so you can have a play before forking out for the full version. You don’t need to be a maths boffin to see the value in that!

Mathletics Student

Free. iPad. Requires annual subscription.

Recommended by teachers and parents is Mathletics, a subscription-based online system of maths learning.

For £39/year the child can run through adaptive-learning, level-staged maths tasks and games via computer or iPad app. Students learn at their own pace.

Mathletics is fun and features a great rewards system for kids, who win Bronze, Silver and Gold certificates by scoring points in a wide range of maths questions. These questions are presented in a fun and colourful way with animations to brighten things up but also to show how to reach the correct answers. Parents will learn a thing ot two, too.

Live Mathletics sets the child up against other Mathletics players across the world, and is a great way to learn simple number bonds and increase the kids’ recall speed.

Times Tables Toons helps teach children their times table through song and animal animation.

There are weekly progress emails to monitor progress via a Parent Centre.

My daughter has been using Mathletics for over a year now, and it has undoubtedly helped her with her maths, and me understanding/remembering/learning alongside her. We sit down a few times a week for short periods of time, or for one half-hour session that should be long enough for her to score her 1,000 points and earn a new certificate. She loves it, too.

EdPlace

From £66/year or £10/month. Desktop, iPhone, iPad

With entrance exams looming parents often lack the resources and confidence to help sufficiently with their child’s learning. They want peace of mind knowing that their child is being taught in line with the National Curriculum and give them the support they need, but private tutoring is expensive, and sometimes hard to find/evaluate.

EdPlace is an online adaptive learning solution that brings together content created by qualified teachers. It adapts to how the child is learning alongside measurable progress and results. It’s similar to Mathletics but based more closely on the UK National Curriculum.

EdPlace focusses on the foundations of the core curriculum in English, Science and Maths for Key Stages 1-4. The site provides Curriculum coverage across from Year 1 to Year 11. It offers over 3,000 interactive worksheets all created by qualified teachers, with 50 worksheets added each month.

Additional features include automatic marking, adaptive performance based learning, personalised rewards system, badges, teacher videos and online tutorials with teachers.

All the content within the EdPlace library is broken down by topics and sub-topics so parents can assign tasks based on where their child may be struggling in the classroom or feel their child could be challenged more.

EdPlace works both from a desktop browser and an iOS (iPhone and iPad) app.

There is a 14-day full-access trial available for just £1. You can pay £66 for one subject for a year, £99 for all subjects, or monthly from £10. If this seems expensive, compare it to the costs of hiring a private tutor. of course, a good private tutor will offer much more guided tuition. We think EdPlace can work alongside a tutor, and might actually give parents more idea how their child is progressing than some tutors!

Medieval Math Battle

Free with Addition segment; other segments 69p each. iPhone, iPad, Android

Medieval Math Battle really does make maths into a game, as it is a turn-based battle game where you defeat your opponents (villains, giant spiders, goblins, dragons, etc) by answering questions based on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

The maths problems increase in difficulty as the child improves their skills.

As you win battles you earn coins, potions and weapons. You can use the coins to buy new swords and shields and so forth. If the child plays for 15 minutes there’s a special daily bonus.

Medieval Math Battle is free, and comes with the Addition part of the game, but each extra maths type (subtraction, multiplication, division) costs 69p to unlock. So the full cost of everything is £2.07.

Apart from the sections to unlock there aren’t any other nasty in-app purchases in the game.

Medieval Math Battle is a great idea, and sure to be a hit with kids. It would be nice if the player could be a girl as well as a boy, and the action could be a little faster, but we liked the game and recommend it.

Blackboard Madness: Math

Free. iPad, iPhone

Want a bit more of a challenge? Blackboard Madness is a set of fast-paced, quick-fire maths challenges, taking in addition, subtraction, division, multiplications, algebra, and > (more than) and < (less than) questions.

This is a great test of mental maths skills, logic thinking and reaction. It’s like Live Mathletics on speed. You have to slash the correct answers before they drop off the blackboard. There are kung fu sound effects to make you feel like a martial arts maths black belt. Don’t give this to a child just strating out on maths as the pace is pretty frenetic, but mental maths reaction speed is a great skill to teach more experineced maths students.

As with any decent challenge game there are high scores and player statistics to track performance, polus achievements and badges as rewards.

We enjoyed Blackboard Madness. It’s free. So why not try it?

GCSE Maths: Super Edition

Great revision aid

Free Lite version. £4.99 for full version. iPhone & iPad; Android.

Not one for the kids just starting out on maths, this collection of maths revision apps is aimed at children getting close to their GCSE exams (age 12-15), but will also push those younger kids who excel at maths.

It doesn’t have any goofy characters or in-app games, so it’s drier than some of the other maths apps reviewed here. You can also buy the separate apps (Geometry, Numbers, Algebra and Statistics) for £2 each.

The full version of Geometry, for example, includes 830 questions on geometry, allowing kids to revise their shapes, angles, trigonometry, measurements and scaling, transformational geometry and vectors, constructions and loci, and circle theorems. It goes from identifying 2D shapes (parents, this isn’t as easy as it sounds!) to Pythagoras’ theorem in 3D.

You can also sit a Mock Test with mixed questions from all the topics. The app has a clever progress tracking feature including pie charts and bar graphs showing your progress so you should know you’re ready to take on the real test when your progress meter says 100%.

Monster Math

Arithmatic only but fun story line

Free with In-App purchase of full. £2.29 for full version. iPhone & iPad.

Monster Math is aimed at children in US school grades 1-5, which in the UK means ages 6-11.

The monster has to defeat various enemies by solving basic arithmatic questions (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), collecting “candies” along the way. I’m not sure that teaching children on a sweet-based reward system is a great message, and maybe the game developers should have just stuck to the monster theme rather than encouraging kids to think of candies as a proper reward.

This game comes recommended by several readers, but we found it difficult to get back to the start easily if a child wanted to start a new game, and the gameplay rather one dimentional.

But maybe that’s just me being a monster. Monster Math has an engaging (if rather samey after a few plays) story, and will test kids on their arithmatic but not much else. Still the free version is certainly worth a trial, and if your kids enjoy it then the upgrade (new monsters, scorecard, further customisation) will be worth it.

Numbees & The World of Math

£1.49. iPhone, iPad

Numbees is a lot wackier than the other Maths apps here, and plays a rather annoying tune while you work out the answers. But that’s why phones and tablets have volume controls, right?

Aside from the music and sound effects Numbees is a lot of fun and puts maths into an arcade-style format. It’s a lot like Math Bingo but tackles questions from a different point of view, for instance giving you answers and making the player work out the sum.

When your child tires of Math Bingo he or she may well jump to Numbees for a change. I’d recommend both of these for fun maths against the clock.

Other maths learning on your computer or mobile deice

We mentioned Mathletics in conjunction with its iPad app, but you can also play it on your PC, Mac or laptop.

Away from the app scene we also recommend the BBC’s great online maths games. There’s plenty of variety and skills levels. All the games are fun, colourful and step up in difficulty. We like the way the games start at “Medium” level, so kids aren’t dispirited by not flying through an “Easy” level.