Kids Math: Math Games for Kids

Review by eFreeware

If you are looking for something to occupy a preschooler on a phone or tablet that is not just cartoons, Kids Math: Math Games for Kids is the sort of app that tends to end up on the home screen. It comes from RV AppStudios, sits in the Educational category, and is built for children aged 2 and up, with counting, number order, place value and early addition and subtraction as its subject matter. The pitch is straightforward: short, colorful activities that let a small child work at their own pace rather than sit through a lesson.

What makes it easy to say yes to is the business model. The app is free, carries no ads and has no in-app purchases, so there is nothing to unlock, no banner to tap by accident and no subscription conversation to have with a child holding your device. It has been installed more than 5 million times and holds a 4.4 average from just under ten thousand ratings, which suggests a lot of families have kept it around. For a parent who wants a calm, self-contained math activity rather than an open-ended game world, that combination is the main draw.

A Montessori-flavored room to explore

The app leans on the Montessori method, and the developer describes it as letting young children work through beads and self-directed activities at their own speed. In practice that means the child is presented with materials and tasks. The goal is building an understanding of number place value, with addition and subtraction arriving as the child moves through the activities.

The setting is part of the appeal. There is an interactive Lucas Room where children meet Lucas and Friends and his family, and a garden area with outdoor activities inside the same app. This is the sort of framing that keeps a young child oriented: the math tasks live inside a place with characters rather than in a bare exercise list. Colorful visuals and playful sound effects are part of the package the developer describes, and the content rating is Everyone.

The most recent update added a Frog Fun mode, which the developer describes as a playful way to practice numbers and counting. That is a small addition rather than a redesign, but it is a sign the app is still being worked on: it was updated in October 2026, and it first appeared in May 2021.

How the four activity modes work

The learning content is split into four named modes, and each one targets a different skill. Math with Beads uses colorful beads to cover counting and comparing, number place value, addition and subtraction. It is the most explicitly Montessori of the set and the one that carries the heaviest conceptual load, since place value is the idea that a digit's position changes its value.

Number Games is the counting-and-comparing mode. It covers counting, comparing quantities and putting numbers in order, which are the skills a child needs before written arithmetic makes much sense. Fun Maths then moves into addition and subtraction through a set of simple games, so the child meets the operations in more than one context rather than drilling a single format.

Trace Numbers up to 20 is the odd one out and, for many parents, the most immediately useful. Children trace the shapes of numbers up to 20, which helps with recognizing how numbers look and with fine motor control. That is a handwriting-adjacent skill rather than a math skill, but it is exactly the kind of practice that transfers to paper.

Taken together the four modes give a fairly wide spread for a free app: pre-number skills, number recognition, place value and the first operations. A child who works through them in order would be moving from counting objects to writing numerals to adding and subtracting, which is roughly the arc of an early years math curriculum.

What a session actually looks like

Each activity is short and self-contained. A child is shown a task with the beads, numbers or tracing outline and responds. Because the modes are separate, a parent can hand over the device and let the child pick the bead activity one day and tracing the next, or stay on one mode until it feels comfortable.

The self-paced framing matters here. The app lets children progress at their own pace, which suits the age range: a two-year-old and a five-year-old will get very different things out of the same screen. The activities are designed to develop critical thinking and problem-solving through interaction rather than through instruction, and the visuals and sound effects carry the engagement.

The Lucas Room and garden add a second layer for children who want to poke around rather than complete tasks. That mix of structured practice and free exploration is what tends to hold a young child's attention across multiple sessions, and it is the part of the design I would expect to matter most for repeat use.

Why children return to it

Young children rarely sit through anything that feels like homework, so the retention question comes down to whether the activities feel like play. The developer's answer is the combination of bright visuals, playful sound effects and small challenges, plus the characters in Lucas' room and garden. Counting beads and tracing a large numeral are satisfying tasks at this age.

The breadth of modes helps as well. A child who is bored of counting can switch to tracing, and a child who has mastered tracing can move to addition. Because the app is free with no ads, there is no pressure to convert that curiosity into a purchase, and no interruption when a child is mid-task.

The install base gives some reassurance that the formula works for a lot of households: more than five million downloads and an average rating of 4.4 across nearly ten thousand ratings is a healthy signal for an educational title, where ratings tend to be harsher than in entertainment categories.

Cost, ads and what you are agreeing to

On the money question the app is unusually clean. The app is free to download, contains no advertising and offers no in-app purchases. There is no premium tier to consider and nothing inside the app that asks for payment.

That is worth stating plainly because it changes how the app can be used. A child can be handed the device without a parent hovering, and a classroom tablet can run it without a purchasing policy attached. There are no ads and no subscriptions, which keeps the environment free of distractions for learning.

The only commitment is the install itself. The app is rated for Everyone and sits in the Educational category, so it is intended for the youngest end of the audience rather than for older children who need more advanced material.

Where the app is strongest, and its limits

The clearest strength is the match between method and audience. Beads, tracing and number comparison are concrete, hands-on activities, and they are the right tools for a child who is not yet ready for abstract arithmetic. Splitting the content into four modes means the app can serve a two-year-old counting objects and a five-year-old working on subtraction without either feeling out of place.

The limits follow from the same design. This is early years material: counting, number order, place value, addition and subtraction, with tracing up to 20. It is not a full math curriculum, and an older child who has moved past those operations will have exhausted what the four modes offer. The activities are also built around a specific Montessori-style approach with beads and self-directed practice, which is a good fit for families who like that method and a slightly different experience for those who expect a conventional quiz-and-score format.

The Frog Fun mode added in the latest update is a reminder that the app is still being extended, but the additions so far sit inside the same early-years scope rather than pushing into new territory. That is a reasonable choice for an app aimed at children aged 2 and up, and it means the app does one job rather than trying to grow with the child indefinitely.

A free first math app for preschoolers

The four modes cover a sensible spread of early skills, the tracing activity adds handwriting practice, and the Lucas Room and garden give the whole thing a place to explore rather than a list of drills.

The absence of ads and in-app purchases is the detail that makes it workable in practice. You can hand over a device without supervising every tap. For parents, grandparents and preschool or kindergarten teachers who want a free, self-paced math activity with a Montessori flavor, this is a straightforward install.

Go in expecting early-years material and the app delivers what it promises. Families looking for math practice beyond counting, number order and simple addition and subtraction will find the content tops out before their child does, but for the age group the app is built for, the scope is right.

What's new

Jump into a fun new way to learn numbers with our exciting Frog Fun mode! - Explore the new Frog Fun mode - Practice numbers through playful activities - Learn and count while having fun