Kindergarten · Math Mountain
Kindergarten math is counting that can be trusted: one number word for one object, no skipping and no double-touching. Every question here has the objects on screen and can be read aloud, so a four-year-old can work through it without an adult reading over their shoulder.
54 activities in this subject · free to use · no card to start
Canadian provinces write their curricula separately and word them differently, but the kindergarten expectations below are common across all of them. Daily Academy is skills-based rather than built to any one province’s document — see how it maps to your province.
Saying the numbers in order and matching one number to one object are different skills, and it is the second that fails. A child who counts seven apples as six has almost always touched one twice or missed one, rather than forgotten a number.
A child can count “one, two, three, four” perfectly and then be unable to say how many there are. Knowing that the final number names the whole group is a separate idea, and it is the one that makes counting useful.
Four buttons spaced widely look like more than six bunched together. Counting both groups rather than looking at them is the fix, and it is worth doing out loud a few times.
Straight from the library, at the difficulty they are served at. Every question carries an explanation that appears after answering, whether the answer was right or wrong.
Counting & Number Recognition
What number comes just before 10?
Why: 9 comes just before 10. Before means one less, not one more.
Number Sense
There are 3 cats and 6 dogs.
Are there more cats or more dogs?
Why: There are more dogs. 6 is more than 3.
Addition
Which one makes 5?
Why: 4 + 1 = 5. The others make 2, 4 and 6.
Subtraction
6 − 3 = ?
Why: 6 − 3 = 3. Counting backwards is one way; knowing that 3 and 3 make 6 is a faster one.
Mastery is estimated per skill, never per subject, so strength in one can never average away a gap in another. Each page below carries a question you can ask tonight to check it yourself.
By the end of kindergarten, most Canadian curricula expect a child to count to at least 10 reliably, compare two small groups, combine and take away small amounts, recognise and name basic 2D shapes, and use size and position words. The pace varies a good deal between provinces and between children.
Yes. Every question can be read aloud by tapping Listen, the options are read out with the letter shown on each button, and the counting questions put the objects on screen. That is why kindergarten activities were written after the read-aloud existed rather than before.
Five minutes, most days. At four and five the limit is attention rather than time available, and a short session that ends while a child still wants more is what builds the habit.
Twenty minutes, five stops, and every question pitched at your child rather than at their year group. The daily mission is free and stays free.