A reading app with no streaks
There is no counter that resets, no reward for coming back tomorrow, and no notification that your child is falling behind. The book is the reason to come back.
What is deliberately not here
Each of these is a design decision rather than a feature we have not got round to. They are also written down on our promise about children, so that they can be held against us.
No streaks or timers
There is no counter that resets and no reward for coming back tomorrow. Re-reading a book is encouraged because re-reading genuinely helps a child read it better, and it is not counted towards anything.
No notifications
Nothing is sent to tell a child they are falling behind, and nothing asks them to come back. Email is transactional and is never addressed to a child.
No adverts
We do not advertise to children, and nothing about what a child reads is sold, shared, or used to train anything outside this product.
No score
The questions at the end of a book ask what happened, why it happened and how it felt. The answer is explained either way, and there is no mark.
What happens when the daily limit is reached
Pip says it is time for a rest, plainly, and offers nothing to extend it. There is no countdown beforehand, no last chance, and no way for a child to earn more time. A limit that can be argued with is not a limit.
Why twenty minutes a day is the part that matters
These are findings about reading in general, not about TaleTykes. They are the reason we built something a child wants to open rather than something that reminds them to.
1.8m
Words a year a child meets by reading around twenty minutes a day outside school.
Anderson, Wilson and Fielding, 1988
3×
How much more likely children who enjoy reading are to read above the level expected for their age.
National Literacy Trust
4×
How much more reading for pleasure at ten mattered for progress by sixteen than having a parent with a degree.
Sullivan and Brown, UCL Institute of Education, 2013
None of that needs a streak. It needs a book they want to open again tomorrow.
What a parent sees instead
Books made, words read, the measured level of every book on one chart, and the last two weeks of reading. Enough to know whether the books are still the right size for your reader.
Reading time is recorded when a book is closed, not by a timer left running. Levels are estimates of the text, not a measure of your child. Nothing on that page is shown to the child, and none of it is a target.
The rest of what we do not do
Sharing is off until you turn it on. Learning from what a child enjoys is off until you turn it on, and turning it back off deletes what was learned. Pip speaks once when a screen opens and then stops, and never claims to be a friend, a pet, or a person. The whole list is on how we keep it safe.
Questions
Then what brings a child back?
The book. It is about what they chose and is written at the level they can actually read, which are the two things that usually put a child off. We cannot promise a child will want to read, and we would rather say that than dress a counter up as motivation.
Is there anything to stop them reading all evening?
A grown-up can set a daily limit. When it is reached, Pip says it is time for a rest and offers nothing to extend it. There is no way for a child to earn more time.
Do you track how much they read?
Reading time is recorded when a book is closed, not by a timer left running, and what it adds up to is shown to you rather than to your child. None of it is a target.
Start tonight
A grown-up sets up the account. Children never give an email address.
Also worth reading: An alternative to Epic, An AI reading app with phonics built in.