Count in Steps moves on from counting one at a time. The board shows a run such as 10, 15, 20 and asks what comes next. It is the bridge between counting and the times tables.
What your child is learning
Counting in twos, fives and tens is called skip counting. It is how children first meet multiplication, long before the word is used. A child who can chant "five, ten, fifteen, twenty" already knows the start of the five times table.
It also has everyday uses. Counting pairs of socks, coins and the minutes on a clock face all go faster in steps.
How to help
Say the pattern aloud together before answering. Skip counting has a strong rhythm, and hearing it is half the learning.
Look at the last digits. When counting in fives, numbers end in five, then zero, then five, then zero. In tens, they always end in zero. In twos, the endings go two, four, six, eight, zero and round again. Spotting this makes children feel like detectives.
If your child is stuck, count on in ones and whisper the numbers you skip: "ten, (eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen,) fifteen".
Watch for the near misses. The wrong answers include the numbers just either side of the right one, and the number one step too far. A child who is guessing will often pick those.
Taking it further
Count real things in groups: shoes in twos, fingers in fives, toes in tens.
Twos come up most often in the game, because they are learned first.
As HTML5 games for six to eight year olds go, this is a quick one. A round is over in two minutes, which makes it easy to do every day.