Letters & phonics
Good for about 3–5 years
Finding letters, matching a letter to a word, and hearing the first sound of a word. We keep a letter’s name (“bee”) separate from its sound (the short “b” in “ball”), so children aren’t confused.
For parents of 2–5 year olds
Free preschool learning games with Annamaria
Short, story-led games your child can play with you: letters and first sounds, counting, shapes, colours, logic and feelings. No ads, no sign-up, no timers and no “game over”.
Counting & numbers
Good for about 2–5 years
Counting objects one by one, matching a number to a group, and noticing “one more” and “too many”: the building blocks of early maths.
Shapes
Good for about 3–5 years
Naming circles, squares, triangles and rectangles, and seeing how small shapes make bigger things like houses and rockets.
Colours
Good for about 2–4 years
Naming colours and spotting them around us. A bigger colour game, the Colour Potion Lab, is being built.
Logic & problem solving
Good for about 3–5 years
Matching, sorting and “what goes where?”. Shape Builder asks children to fit each piece to its outline; the levels gently add distractors as they grow.
Feelings & friendship
Good for about 2–5 years
Recognising happy, sad, surprised and worried faces, and kind things to do. No feeling is a “bad” feeling.
How to play them well (in 3 minutes)
- Sit together. Read the prompt aloud, then wait. The pause is your child’s turn to think and answer.
- Keep it short. Two or three rounds is a great session. Stop while it is still fun.
- Take it off the screen. Every game has a home activity, and three have printable sheets.
Want the detail? Read Learning with Annamaria, our plain guide to what each game practises.
Questions parents ask
Are the games really free?
Yes. There are no ads, no sign-up, nothing to buy and nothing to download. They play in any modern browser on a phone, tablet or computer.
What age are they for?
Roughly 2 to 5 years. Each game has three levels (Discover, Practice and Challenge) and adjusts by itself, so a two-year-old and a five-year-old can both play.
Do you collect any information about my child?
No. There are no accounts and no forms. Stars, stickers and levels are saved only in your own browser so the games can remember progress. You can clear them from the sticker book.
How long should my child play?
A few minutes is plenty. There are no timers or “game over” screens, so it is easy to stop. Every game also has an off-screen activity or a printable sheet.
Do the games use real letter sounds?
Sound Detective uses whole words (like “sun” and “sock”) so children hear real first sounds. We never use a letter’s name as if it were its sound.