Academics
SumPals
Count on to add all the way to fluent facts with Sumi the squirrel — ten-frames, number bonds, place value, and fact fluency for grade 1–2 (ages 6–8).
▶ Play it nowBuilt for sittings of about 15 minutes on the screen. That is our design budget, not a measurement.
Meet your mentor
Every Spark & Anvil app has a friendly mentor character that demonstrates, asks, and patiently scaffolds learning.
Mentored by Sumi
#d98324 Characters who teach
Meet the cast
In SumPals, a math app for ages 6 to 8, Sumi the squirrel hops forward and back to add and subtract, Pippa the rabbit splits a pile into parts and puts it back together, Tenny the centipede bundles ten ones into a ten, and Zippy the hummingbird practices facts until they come quickly, without any pressure.
Sumi
Add & subtract (counting on / back) — a warm acorn-orange squirrel kid who hops forward and back along a number line to add and take away; dotted jump-arcs mark each equal hop
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Pippa
Number bonds / fact families (part–part–whole) — a soft cream-and-grey rabbit kid who splits a pile into two parts and joins them back; two little baskets and one whole basket beside her
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Tenny
Place value (tens & ones) — a friendly many-segmented centipede kid whose ten body-segments bundle into a ten-rod and unbundle into ones; a tidy ten-rod and loose unit-cubes beside her
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Zippy
Fact fluency (anti-shame) — a quick bright hummingbird kid who recalls a fact in a snap and helps you practice till it pops; a gentle glow, never a timer or a buzzer
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Browse all chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Learning goal
Count on to add all the way to fluent facts with Sumi the squirrel — ten-frames, number bonds, place value, and fact fluency for grade 1–2 (ages 6–8).
Mentored by Sumi — no data leaves the device.
How SumPals handles your kid's data
- ✅ All progress, settings, and AI-generated content stays on the device
- ✅ No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs
- ✅ Free — no ads, no in-app purchases
- ✅ No personal information collected from children — in line with COPPA (updated by the 2026 FTC amendments)
- ✅ No chat with strangers — play-together rooms use a short code and preset emotes, never typed messages
For you, the grown-up
The grown-up side of SumPals on Spark & Whetstone, our free site for grown-ups: The Maths They Teach Now (number bonds). Two parts make the whole; the lesson is "make ten first".
SumPals runs on ForgeKit — the open-source Swift Package Manager framework that powers every Spark & Anvil app. ForgeKit ensures consistent accessibility, COPPA compliance, and design language across the portfolio, so your kid's progress and preferences feel coherent across every app they touch.
Coming to the App Store
SumPals is in active development. Email us to hear when it ships — no marketing, no spam, just a one-shot launch announcement.
Email me at launch