For Kids · Games
Ad-free nature games for two-, four- and six-year-olds
Sixteen games and stories a child can hold on their own: no ads, no accounts, no scores, every word read aloud, and everything in them true — today’s weather, tonight’s moon, the family’s own rivers, and the family’s own town seen from a goose’s height.
The games
The dots say how well each one fits each age. Tap any card to open it in the book.
Game · about 15 min
Fly Over Home
Fly geese, monarchs, Jay the blue jay or a jet over your own town, at their real speeds, with a guide naming what's below.
Game · about 10 min
The Big Jump
Pick a rock or a waterfall and an animal from a frog to a bear — hold, let go, and see the splash.
Game · about 6 min
Down the River
Swim or paddle down your own rivers to the sea, dodging rocks, whirlpools and hungry bears.
Game · about 8 min
Land, Water, Sky
Carry each animal to its real home — a den, a burrow, a nest, a lodge, a stream — with real photographs.
Game · about 5 min
Weather Window
Look out of the window, say what the sky is doing, and keep a week of weather.
Game · about 5 min
Walk Around the Sun
Carry the Earth around the sun once for every year you have been alive.
Game · about 3 min
The Barefoot Walk
Walk a path of moss, pinecones, mud and puddles on your own bare feet — or a bear's, a duck's, a deer's, a frog's or a raccoon's.
Game · about 2 min
The Frog Pond
Catch the frogs that hop across the stories and games, then count them at the pond — eight real kinds to find.
Game · Only at sunrise
The Dawn Chorus
Only at sunrise: wake five birds on a branch and hear each one's real song, then all of them together.
Game · Only at midday
The Noon Shadow
Only around midday: drag the sun across the sky and watch a shadow swing and stretch.
Game · Only at dusk
Lights at Dusk
Only as it gets dark: catch fireflies in a jar and let them go — or count the first stars coming out.
Game · Only at night
Eyes in the Dark
Only at night: shine a flashlight on the glowing eyes in the meadow and find who is awake.
Story · about 6 min
Jay Forgets an Acorn
The four seasons, through one oak tree and one forgetful blue jay.
Story · about 7 min
Where Does the Rain Go?
Follow one raindrop from the clearing, down real rivers, to your own ocean and back.
Story · about 6 min
The Big Stone
Rock, ice and very long ago: how a boulder rode a glacier and stayed.
Story · about 6 min
Hoo's Night
The turning Earth, tonight's real moon, and counting stars with a barred owl.
By what they teach
What you are handing over
No ads, ever
The children's pages carry no advertising and no advertising scripts. Nothing is for sale inside a game.
No accounts, no tracking
Nothing to sign up for. No analytics on the children's pages, and no location or name leaves the device.
Read aloud
Every word is spoken by the device's own voice, and lit as it is read, so a child who cannot read yet can still play alone.
Nothing to fail
No scores, no timers, no wrong answers that scold. A wrong box bounces back; the story waits.
Real, and local
Today's weather, tonight's moon, your own rivers and your own town from the air. The game matches the window.
A lock for the grown-ups
One tap takes the whole screen and stops the back button; a press-and-hold gets out. A one-tap sound switch, too.
Made for where you live
Tell it where you live
The games draw the clearing in your real season and sky, follow your own rivers to the sea, and fly over your own town. A town, postal code or ZIP is all it needs — and it is kept on this device only.
Questions parents ask
- Are the games really free?
- Yes. There is nothing to buy inside them, no subscription, no 'premium' animals. The children's pages carry no advertising either. The grown-up half of the site is what pays for it.
- Do they need an account or the internet?
- No account, ever. They need the internet to open, because the weather, the moon and the map are today's real ones, and after that most of a story works with a poor connection.
- What device?
- A tablet turned sideways is best. A phone works — turn it sideways, and use the padlock so a small child stays inside the game. A laptop works with the arrow keys.
- Are they safe for a two-year-old to hold?
- That is what the padlock is for: one tap takes the whole screen and stops the back button working, and only a press-and-hold gets out. Nothing in a game links anywhere else without that hold.
- What do they actually teach?
- Counting real things, the seasons, the weather, where animals live, where home is on a map and which way is north — each one true for where your family lives. The grown-ups' drawer in every game says what it is teaching and what to do outside afterwards.
- Why is it a bird book?
- Peck the woodpecker and Jay the blue jay are the two birds on this site's own sign. The book is the children's half of a site written for their parents about the same ground, water and sky.
Plan today
A day of outdoor activities, planned around your children and today's weather.
Twelve lessons
An hour outside and five minutes on screen, with the words to say at each age.
Books and videos
Picture books and films about where you live and the animals that live there.