Mathfun. Math game for kids

My daughter had started spending her time with a phone. Fine — then let the phone hold the multiplication table.

How it started

The phone was already in her hands. That was the whole premise — not to take it away, but to put something on it worth the time. So the first version did exactly one thing: the multiplication table, four examples at a time, set large enough to read from across the room.

No levels, no lives, no timer. One row of the table, and a button for the next four.

Hold, look, then check yourself

Press and hold at the bottom of the screen and every answer appears at once. Let go and they are gone. Then she taps a single example, that one answer stays — and she finds out whether she had it right before she looked.

Nothing is ever marked wrong, because nothing is being marked. The answer is always one press away, and that is the point: the child is checking herself rather than being tested. What does the work is visual memory — you saw 6 • 8 = 48 a moment ago, and now you say it before you look.

Mathfun on a phone — the row of multipliers 2 to 10 across the top with 6 selected, and four examples below it: 6 • 6 =, 6 • 7 =, 6 • 8 =, 6 • 9 = — Finger up: four examples, no answers

The same screen with a finger held down — every example now shows its answer: 6 • 6 = 36, 6 • 7 = 42, 6 • 8 = 48, 6 • 9 = 54 — Finger down: every answer at once

The answer is always available. Looking is not cheating — it is the method.

Nothing is graded, so there is nothing to be wrong about.

Tapping does pay, though. Harder rows are worth more: an answer in the eights counts seven points, while the tens — the easy row — count one. The star in the corner holds the day's total, a small chart behind it shows the week by weekday, and every hundred points sets off confetti.

Then it turned out teachers wanted it

What worked for one child at a kitchen table worked on a whiteboard too. Four large examples are about a class's worth of attention: the room answers them, then the next four arrive.

Tardigrade sticker: Testing with kids — On a projector it stops being homework — one table, one room, every hand up

A classroom with Mathfun projected on the whiteboard — the multiplication table for five worked through line by line, hands up across the room. — On a projector it stops being homework — one table, one room, every hand up

Beyond multiplication

So it grew past multiplication — division built to always come out whole, addition, and subtraction that never drops below zero.

For adding and subtracting, the row of multipliers becomes a row of ranges: numbers up to 10, 20, 50 or 100. It keeps the exact same visual cadence and one-tap checking without adding any extra rules.

Mathfun set to addition — the top row now offers ranges 10, 20, 50 and 100 with 20 selected, and the examples read 18 + 14 =, 14 + 11 =, 6 + 6 =, 19 + 5 = — For addition the multipliers become ranges — up to 10, 20, 50 or 100

Four large examples are about one class's worth of attention.

Inverted, for a darkened room

A projector does not show a white screen — it lights the whole wall with it. In a classroom with the blinds down that wall becomes the brightest thing in the room, while the examples are the only part anybody needs to see.

So inversion here is a switch, not a mood. The background drops away, the digits stay lit, and whatever was a large yellow fill — the Next button, the score sheet — comes back as an outline. Only the small things stay solid: the selected operation and the selected row, because a child at the back still has to see which table is running.

Mathfun inverted on a wide screen — near-black background, the operations and the row of multipliers as dark pills with 2 picked out in yellow, four white examples for the twos, and the Next Examples button reduced to a yellow outline — The same screen, and the same screen on a wall: the digits light up, the room does not

The same inverted screen projected in a classroom — white digits on the wall, the teacher pointing at them, hands going up in the front row, and the rest of the room left unlit — The same screen, and the same screen on a wall: the digits light up, the room does not

What's in it

Multiplication tables

Any row from 2 to 10, either straight down in order or shuffled.

Division

Built backwards from a product, so every example comes out whole.

Addition and subtraction

Numbers up to 10, 20, 50 or 100. Subtraction never drops below zero.

Press and hold

Every answer at once while the finger is down, gone the moment it lifts.

A day's score

Harder rows pay more. The total resets daily, and the week shows as a chart.

Inverted mode

For projectors and dark rooms: lit digits, unlit wall.

Play Mathfun Online

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