Side by Play: Learning Games

Side by Play is preschool and kindergarten learning games for a parent and a kid to play together. It's not something you hand over so you can get dinner done. You sit next to them and read the line at the top. They do the tapping.

It's built for about 15 minutes before bed, for kids 3 to 6.

Almost every game in here is one my oldest and I made up on an iPad when he was little. We spent 15 to 30 minutes on them every night, and he lit up. Now your family can play them too.

WHAT YOU'LL PLAY TOGETHER

Counting Board • Adding and taking away, with the number sentence that goes with it • Times as boxes, and sharing a bunch out onto plates until it's fair • Area and perimeter, patterns, and naming shapes

Letters and Rhymes • Trace a letter together. It checks every stroke, so half an A doesn't count • A rhyming words race and a word ladder • A silly picture made from your words, saved to the fridge

Map Pieces • A states and capitals game for kids who can't read yet • Drag a piece back into the map, then find its capital • The 50 states, the countries of the world, or the seven continents • Where we're from: zoom in on a place you know and talk about its towns, rivers, lakes and mountains

Feelings • An emotions game: name the face, then make the face • Two questions every time: when did you feel it, and when did someone else?

HOW A NIGHT WORKS

Pick 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes. When time's up, the app winds down on its own and shows the stars your kid earned tonight in a night sky. Stars buy silly dares the grown-up has to do: a silly dance, a song in a funny voice, one extra book.

More than one kid? Each one gets their own stars and sky. Just exploring? Just learning earns nothing and saves nothing.

PRIVATE, AND PAID FOR ONCE

No ads. No accounts. No subscription, and nothing to buy inside the app. It works with the wifi off, and nothing your kid does ever leaves the device.