Playloom Kids: Preschool Games

58 short learning games for 3 and 4 year olds: first words, counting, shapes and sounds. Nothing to read, no ads, no accounts, and it works offline.

Playloom Kids is 58 short learning games for children aged 3 and 4 who can't read yet. They teach 122 first English words, along with counting, shapes, colours, sounds and feelings, all through play.

Every day the app picks a few games for your child's age. Each one is a little routine of three or four steps, like brushing teeth, feeding the animals, or dressing for the weather. Each step is one simple gesture: a tap, a drag, or a rub. A warm narrator says every word, a friendly hand shows what to do, and the picture changes right away, so your child always knows what happened.

THERE IS NOTHING TO READ No menus of text, no written instructions. Pictures, the narrator's voice and the hand hint do all the guiding. If your child pauses, the hand shows the gesture again, then the narrator repeats the line.

NO LOSING, NO TIMERS, NO SCORES A lifted finger leaves things where they are. A wrong answer floats gently home. Every finished step gets a word of praise, and the end of a game gets sparkles. Nothing is earned by playing and nothing is lost.

A FEW WORDS AT A TIME, BROUGHT BACK OVER DAYS Each game teaches a few new words and says them out loud. A game your child has met comes back until it has been played on three different days, and only then does a new one join. When today's games are played, the day has a goodbye, so stopping is easy.

FIVE PLACES TO EXPLORE The House, with the bear: getting clean, getting dressed, tidying up, feelings. Number Hill, with the puppy: counting, shapes, sorting by colour, big and little. Wild Garden, with the koala: animals, my body, the weather, sink or float. Letter Tree, with the fox: listening games, rhymes, first sounds, picture stories. The Studio: ten toys for free play with stickers, paint, dressing up and music, with no right answers at all.

MADE FOR AGES 3 AND 4 You give your child's birth month, and the app shows only the games for that age. At three, a sitting is three games, with two answers to choose from. At four, a sitting is four games, and many of the games move up to a harder level. You can also set the level and the number of games by hand.

FOR GROWN-UPS Press and hold the small corner button for two seconds, then tap the three numbers it asks for, to open the grown-ups' area. See what was played and which words came up, read an idea to try together away from the screen, change the level, turn the music off, or reset progress. The numbers are written as words, which keeps it out of little hands.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN No ads. No accounts. No in-app purchases. No tracking of any kind. The app never connects to the internet, so it works on a plane or in the car, and everything your child does stays on your device.

PLANNED FROM RESEARCH The games follow research on how preschool children learn to talk, count and understand the world around them, and on how young children use touchscreens. That is why each game teaches a few words at a time, why sittings are short and end with a goodbye, and why there are no prizes for playing.

Playloom Kids is made by a parent, for a preschooler who can't read yet. We hope your child loves it as much as ours does.

Questions or ideas: mihaiserban2@gmail.com