The port
Trucks want a number. Your child loads containers until it adds up.
The port is a cartoon container harbor in 3D, and your child is the crane driver. They drag a finger and the big yellow crane turns until its hook is there, swinging a little. A big red magnet button picks up the container under the hook or puts it down. There is nothing to fail: any container can always be picked up again.
Every container carries a number and the same number of dots, laid out like a ten-frame (two rows of five, a way many classrooms show numbers up to ten). Each number has its own color. A board at the top shows what the truck, ship or train wants, and its own ten-frame fills with the dots of each container loaded, so “two and three” becomes something your child can see.
When the load is right, the voice says the sum (“Two and three make five!”), a star is earned and the vehicle drives off. Too many shows in red, with “Too many! Take one off.” The first visit is a guided tour with a pointing hand.
How it plays
“Find the number four!” A truck or ship needs one container, first from 1 to 5, then from 1 to 10. Next comes bigger and smaller: a big truck and a little truck arrive together, and the bigger number goes on the big one. Three clean deliveries open the next skill.
The train’s wagons carry a pattern with a gap: 1, 2, 1, 2, ? The voice reads it out as each wagon hops (“One! Two! One! Two! What comes next?”). Because every number has its own color, a number pattern is a color pattern too. Later trains have seven wagons and patterns like A A B or A B C, then patterns that grow in twos or count down.
Two containers make the number, first up to 5, later up to 10, and then three at once. In “the same as” rounds, one truck arrives loaded with three and two, and your child loads the other until both match. The board shows “not equal” and tips toward the heavier side, then a green “=” appears. The voice says it the other way round on purpose: “Five is the same as three and two!”
A truck comes with three and needs five: “Three and how many make five?” The board shows it as 5 = 3 + ?. Later a ship arrives too full, and your child takes containers off until it carries the right number. The last skill brings a white ten container: “Ten and three make thirteen!”
Now and then the order board is covered after a few seconds (“Remember: five!”), and tapping it peeks, with no penalty. Stars unlock ships at 3, new truck colors at 6, the train at 10, painting the crane at 15 and night time at 20. The shapes button switches to free play: load anything, and the truck counts it up.
Skills
The thinking
Patterns come early on purpose. Pattern skill at four predicts later math beyond counting (Rittle-Johnson and others, 2017). The train always shows two whole repeats before the gap, and the numbers in a pattern come from clearly different color families, so the pattern can be seen as well as counted.
The “same as” trucks tackle a common stumbling block: in the first school years, many children read “=” as “the answer comes next” (McNeil). So the board tips like a balance and the voice puts the total first. Earlier skills come back now and then for review, and a hard round makes the next one easier. As for remembering the cargo, to be honest about it: it practices keeping a few numbers in mind during this game. It is not brain training that makes a child cleverer elsewhere.
Away from the screen
Ideas to carry the game into everyday life, no screen needed.
Make patterns with colored pegs, pasta or socks (red, blue, red, blue) and ask what comes next.
Cut two cups off an egg carton to make a ten-frame, and fill it with buttons to make 5, 7 or 10.
Play “the same as” with two plates: put three grapes and two grapes on one, and let your child make the other plate the same.
Watch a real harbor, train or delivery truck and count the containers or wagons together.
FAQ
It opens at every age and starts gently: one container at a time, numbers 1 to 5, and dots on every container to count. Adding, equals and teen numbers come much later on the ladder.
Nothing bad. Too many shows in red and the voice says “Too many! Take one off.” Any container can be picked up and put back, and a hard round makes the next one a little easier.
A grid of two rows of five. The containers and the order board show their dots this way, so it is easy to see how many there are and how many more would make ten.
Yes. The shapes button in the corner switches to free play: load anything, press the green button, and the truck counts it up.
Guides
Simple math games for 3–6-year-olds: counting objects, a straight-line board game, ten-frames, making ten, comparing, sorting and patterns, with age tips.
Read the guide
More to explore
Sort the boxes, fill the trucks, and save up for a faster forklift
Ticket, suitcase, flight and postcard: a trip to a country your child knows
Spoken from the first tap, no reading needed, no ads, and progress that stays on your iPad.
