This article was published on March 12, 2012

Numby teaches your kids how to count in weird and wonky ways


Numby teaches your kids how to count in weird and wonky ways

Emerging technology holds promise for countless industries, and seeing how kids so easily gravitate towards tablets and mobile devices, it’s becoming clear that education and learning are ripe for innovation.

We’ve looked at the future of children’s books and covered the different ways kids look at technology. Now, I’d like to call attention to Numby; a weird, yet delightful 99 cent app that teaches children how to count with Numby the robot.

Numby is a strange illustrative robot who needs help counting to 10. Count up to 10 and he’ll learn a new song. Then, you can make Numby play back the song with his onboard synth. His purpose is simple: “There’s nothing that Numby the robot would rather to do, than count to ten and back again.”

About the creators, Pitaru & Paterson:

Seeing each of our young kids learn to count sparked our imagination. We wanted to explore the simple act of counting from zero to ten in weird and wonky ways.

As we’re both coders, we wanted to infuse Numby with a few ideas from our craft. You might notice that Numby counts down to 0 rather than 1 (just like coders do). There’s also light references to Arrays (and even Multi-Dimensional ones).

The team continues to work on new updates for the app, teaching the robot new tricks and surprises. Subtle details, like the fact that if you pay close attention, you’ll also meet 10 ghosts that live inside Numby’s machine-belly, show that this app isn’t for everyone.

If you’re a fan of convention and are determined to stick with the likes of Sesame Street, you’ll want to look away. But for those looking for some quirky and fun to share with their kids, this truly is an awesome app to try.

➤  Numby, via the App Store for $0.99

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