Two of our favourite children’s apps of 2013 came from developer Originator: Endless Alphabet and Endless Reader. Now it’s released a third in the series: Endless Numbers.

The previous apps aimed to teach children letters and sentences with a simple drag’n’drop interface, and a troop of comical, colourful monsters, who acted out the words.

As you may have guessed from the title, Endless Numbers adopts a similar approach, but swaps out letters for numbers in an effort to “set the stage for early numeracy learning”. That means it’s aimed at pre-schoolers and children taking their first steps in maths.

“Kids will have a blast learning number recognition, sequences, quantity, numerical patterns, and simple addition with the adorable Endless monsters,” claims its App Store listing.

“Each number features interactive sequences and equation puzzles with numbers that come alive, and a short animation that provides context and meaning to each number.”

As before, this isn’t a collection of exercises, so kids aren’t scored on their abilities, and don’t have to complete the sequences against a time limit. Instead, it’s playful fun, with the learning worn lightly.

Endless Numbers is a free download for iPhone and iPad on Apple’s App Store, but like the previous apps, it’s a “freemium” app: free to try, but then you pay to unlock all its content.

In this case, your children will get five numbers to play with for free, but the full 1-25 number pack costs £2.49 with a single in-app purchase, which unlocks it permanently.

Read about more maths apps for kids on Apps Playground, and check out our 100 Best iPad Apps of 2013 e-book – £1.99 from Apple’s iBooks Store