Three small learning apps I built for my ten-year-old. They are free, there is nothing to sign up for, and your child's work stays on your device. Take them if they're useful.
One evening she asked me a question about fractions, decimals and percents. Simple enough, I thought — I can explain this in a minute. Five minutes later she was in tears, telling me I thought she was stupid, and I had worked myself into a temper.
She is ten, she is bright, and she would rather play than grind through more practice — which I understand, because I hated worksheets too. I don't want her drilling her way to speed (in Chinese we call it 刷题). I want her to see where the idea in a problem actually sits, and then know how to work it out. Whether she is quick about it really doesn't matter.
So after that evening I stopped pushing. She likes playing — so what if she could play and learn at the same time? I threw together a small app. To my surprise it worked: ten minutes a day, badges to collect, and practice aimed only at the parts she was weak on. Ten days later she had the whole thing. Then I made one for vocabulary, one word a day, so that by high school she will have met thousands of words without ever cramming. Then a third for spelling, after her teacher mentioned she drops letters when she rushes.
She opens them herself now, every day. This week she set her alarm ten minutes earlier — not to get to school early, but because one of the badges is called Early Bird and she wanted it. And she has started asking how I made them, saying she wants to build one of her own. It is the first time I have seen her genuinely curious about something. Teaching her to vibe-code is next, and I want to see what she comes up with.
One word each day — what it means, how to say it, a sentence, and often the quote it came from. Badges, puzzles and a streak that forgives a missed day. Slow on purpose: a word a day for a few years is thousands of words, and never the same word twice.
Open Word a DayThe one that came out of that question. A ten-day course that teaches why ¼ and 0.25 and 25% are the same amount, using pizza and pocket money, with the rules coming last on purpose. Then endless practice, real calculations across all three, and a test on day eleven.
Open Three Ways to Say ItA flip card shows the meaning and a row of empty letter boxes. Type the word, flip the card, see whether you got it. Anything missed lands on a Tricky list with a hint, and comes back until it sticks. It reads the word aloud, the way a real spelling test does.
Open Spell It, Flip ItNo account, no password — the name your child types is how their work is saved. Three things worth doing on the first day:
If a browser gets cleared, or you move to a new phone, just type the same name again — the progress comes back. The PIN is what stops anyone else doing the same. One PIN covers all three apps.
I asked her why she is so keen on these. Her answers, word for word:
It’s like playing a game.
I get to collect different badges every day.
It practises the parts I actually don’t know — it’s not boring like 刷题.
This app is made for ME!
Nothing in them punishes her: no timer, no ads, and missing a day costs nothing. But that is not why she opens them. She opens them because the last one is true: this was made for her alone, around what she likes.
These three work because I knew exactly what my daughter was stuck on. If your child is stuck on something specific — long division, times tables, reading comprehension, characters, verb conjugations — we can talk it through, and I will either build one aimed at exactly that, or show you how to build it yourself.
Tell me what they're stuck on:
hello@chloelouzhang.app女儿十岁，我给她做了三个学习用的小App。免费，不用注册，孩子练的东西都存在你自己的手机或平板里。你如果觉得有用，就拿去用。
有天晚上她问我一道有关分数、小数和百分比的问题，我想这么简单的事，还不是信手拈来，结果5分钟后，她哭着说我觉得她笨，我也把自己气得够呛。
她十岁，脑子不笨，就是宁可玩也不想多刷题，这我理解，我自己小时候也烦做卷子。我不想让她靠刷题把速度刷上去，我想让她真明白这个题的知识点在哪里，然后知道怎么算出来，至于算得快慢真不是大问题。
所以那天之后我没再逼她，我想她既然喜欢玩，那干脆让她玩着学？就随手给她做了个小App。没想到真管用。每天打卡10分钟、收集徽章、专练她的薄弱点。10天后，概念全懂了！后来又做了个背单词的，一天就一个词，这样等她上高中，几千个词早就见过了，不用临时抱佛脚。再后来做了第三个练拼写的，因为老师说她写快了老掉字母。
现在她每天主动打开app学习。这周闹钟还特意往前调了十分钟，不是为了早上学，是因为徽章里有个 Early Bird（早起鸟），她想要。然后最近她开始问我这些都是怎么做出来的。说她也想自己做一个。这是我第一次看见她发自内心对一件事情感到好奇。下一步可以开始教她vibe coding,看看她自己能搞出什么花样来。
每天就一个词：什么意思、怎么读、一个例句，不少词还配了它最早出现的那句名言。有徽章，有拼字小游戏，连着打卡断一天也不清零。速度慢是故意的：一天一个，几年下来就是几千个词，没有重复。
打开 Word a Day最早就是因为这个题才开始做的。十天的小课，用披萨和零钱把 ¼、0.25、25% 其实是同一个量讲明白，规则特意留到最后才讲。之后想练多久练多久，还有三种形式混着的真运算，第十一天考试。
打开 Three Ways to Say It卡片正面给出词义和一排空格，把单词一个字母一个字母填进去，翻过来看对没对。拼错的会进「易错本」，附带记忆窍门，过一阵再拿出来考，直到记住为止。它还会把单词念出来，跟老师报听写一样。
打开 Spell It, Flip It不用账号，也没有密码。孩子输入的那个名字，就是他的存档。头一天最好把这三件事做了：
浏览器被清空、换了新手机都不要紧，把同一个名字再输一遍，进度就回来了。PIN 就是防着别人也这么干。一个 PIN，三个 App 通用。
我问她：这些App为什么做得这么积极？她的原话是：
跟玩游戏一样
每天都能收集不同的徽章
专门练我不会的地方，不像刷题那么无聊
This app is made for ME!
这些 App 里没有惩罚：不计时，没有广告，漏一天也不影响什么。但她愿意打开，不是因为这些。是因为最后那句话是真的：这是给她一个人做的，根据她的喜好。
这三个之所以好用，是因为我特别清楚我女儿卡在哪儿。如果你家孩子卡在某个具体的点上，比如长除法、乘法口诀、阅读理解、认字、动词变位，那可以先跟我聊聊，我帮他做一个专门盯着那个点的小App，或者教你怎么给他做。
跟我说说他卡在哪儿：
hello@chloelouzhang.app