Sumwhere Isles

What your child learns

The ten islands follow the order most US schools teach math, with Common Core style skills from Kindergarten through Grade 5.

• Counting Cove (Kindergarten): counting to 20 with ten frames, making numbers, what comes next, which is more, and the < and > signs.
• Add-and-Take Forest (K to 2): adding and subtracting within 10 and 20, making 10, doubles, the make a ten strategy, and story problems read aloud.
• Place Value Peaks (Grades 1 to 3): tens and ones, hundreds, adding and subtracting within 100 and 1000 with regrouping, and rounding.
• Times Table Tundra (Grades 2 to 5): skip counting, equal groups and arrays, times facts to 12, sharing and division, times story problems, and for Grade 5 multi-digit multiplication with an area model and division with remainders.
• Fraction Falls (Grades 1 to 5): equal parts, naming fractions, fractions on a number line, equivalent fractions, comparing, adding or subtracting with the same denominator, and for Grade 5 adding and subtracting with unlike denominators (cut both fraction bars into matching pieces) and a fraction times a whole number.
• Money Market, Time Tower, Shape Shore and Measurement Meadow (K to 3): US coins and making change, reading and setting clocks and elapsed time, 2D and 3D shapes, area and perimeter, rulers in inches and centimeters, and picture and bar graphs. Shape Shore also has Grade 5 volume: build boxes from unit cubes.
• Treasure Point (Grade 5), with Skipper the otter: decimals to thousandths with decimal blocks, place value charts and hundred grids (place value, comparing, rounding, adding and subtracting), the coordinate grid, and longer story problems read aloud.

How it works

A new player makes a buddy (four shapes, a color and a name built from sound parts, so nobody types a real name), picks a grade, then does a six puzzle warm-up. The warm-up only decides where to start. If it goes badly we quietly start one grade lower.

On the map, the Keep going button opens the next skill that fits your child, and any open island can be explored. A puzzle path is five problems, about one or two minutes. Today's quest is eight problems mixed from different islands, about five minutes. Everything is read aloud, and there's a speaker button to hear it again, so children who don't read yet can play.

Most problems ask your child to do something with a picture: tap to fill a ten frame, add hundreds, tens and ones blocks, put coins in a tray to pay an exact price (any mix of coins that adds up is right), drag the minute hand, build an array with rows and columns, shade parts of a fraction bar, tap a spot on a number line, build decimals with blocks, plot points on a grid, deal counters into groups to find a remainder, or build a box from unit cubes. Older kids can type answers on a number pad.

Levels and how it adapts

Each of the 53 skills has five steps, from concrete pictures to plain numbers. Three right answers in a row move up a step. Two misses in the last three ease back down a step. A skill counts as mastered after step five is answered right four times in a row. New skills unlock when the skills before them are practiced.

Mistakes are handled gently. After a first miss your child sees a clue with a picture (hops on a number line, a ten frame showing how to make ten, a skip counting strip) and tries again. After a second miss we show the answer step by step, then give a similar problem right away so they can use what they just saw. There are no lives, no timers and no fail screens, and stars and island coins are never taken away. If a child keeps missing the very first step of a skill, a kind message takes them on a short side trip to the earlier skill that helps (for example, tens and ones before adding within 100), then brings them straight back.

Older skills come back for review in the daily quest after 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 and then 30 days, which research on spaced and mixed practice shows helps math stick.

Rewards: island coins, a buddy and an island

Island coins are earned only by doing math: one for each right answer, one for fixing a mistake, three for finishing a puzzle path, ten for the daily quest and five for mastering a skill. They can't be bought, and they look nothing like the real US coins your child counts on Money Market. Coins buy things for your child's own island: flowers, a lily pond, frogs that hop and croak, ducks, trees, a cottage, a windmill, a campfire and much more, which they can drag anywhere. Five pieces of land open up as they save, the sky follows the time of day, and fireflies and lanterns glow at night.

The buddy can wear hats, shirts, shoes and glasses and have a pet that follows them. A few special items rotate in the shop each day, seasonal items appear in their months, and your child can pin a save up goal or keep a wish list. Badges for real math milestones (first quest, three days in a row, 100 puzzles, five skills mastered) unlock special decorations.

Tips for grown-ups

• Use the Grown-ups button on the map (press and hold for 3 seconds, then answer a quick question). It shows time played, skills mastered, what your child is working on and a practice idea for each skill.
• Ask your child to show you their island and explain one puzzle they solved. Explaining is great practice.
• Count and group real things at home: coins in a jar, steps on stairs, muffin tins as arrays.
• Short and often works best. One daily quest takes about five minutes.

Privacy and safety

Sumwhere Isles has no ads, no accounts, no leaderboards, no chat and no purchases, and nothing about your child is collected or sent anywhere. Up to four players can share a device, and all progress is stored only in the browser on that device. The only links lead to our other learning games and the Sticker Book. It's free and plays in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer.

Questions