Open-source family learning · 6 months–3 years

A screen can open the door.Growing happens together.

Read a small prompt, put the screen down, and play for a while. Sprout pairs slow parent guidance with printable cards and ordinary moments at home.

v0.0.1 · open source · local network · no ads

96 lessons 6 Stage 17 activities
A small television lights up, a seedling grows from the screen, then the television dims and a family returns to real life.
Screen off
Screen 2 minOutside 10 min

Ratio from the built-in lesson “Beep Beep, Let’s Go”: 2 min Screen / 10 min Outside。

Put the direction on the table

Five things,tucked into five seed packets

Each packet is small: open it, read it, then carry the idea back to objects, sounds, and relationships at home.

The built-in pack includes 96 lessons, 6 stages, 17 activities, and 254 word entries.

The marks on the doorframe

Six stages,not a race track

Like pencil marks on a doorframe, age is a gentle reference point. Move the paper tag and see what can be brought back into real life.

S16–8 months

Sensing the World

6–8 Months: Gentle Face-to-Face Play

12 lessons
How to use the screen in this stage
Screen off
For the grown-up
Optional co-view

The grown-up reads the guide; no child-side lesson is shown. Then use cards, books, and real objects together.

Parent guide · each ≤ 3 min Parent guide · each day ≤ 10 min
12 parent guidance 0 co-viewing
The shape of a day
Screen ≤ 10 min 1.4% 10 min / 12 hours
  • Greeting
  • Care
  • Meals
  • Floor play
  • Shared look
  • Outdoors
  • Family time
  • Bedtime

The full ring is 12 waking hours; screen time uses its real proportion and the remaining life segments are illustrative.

Things to notice
  • Familiar Faces and Warm Responses
  • Back-and-Forth Little Sounds
  • Slow, Shared Looking at Printed Cards
  • Brief Hiding and Reappearing
  • Live Singing and Repeated Rhythms
  • Awake Tummy Time and Self-Initiated Reaching
Theme index
01Black, White & Red

Look and play with printed cards, familiar faces, and a floor mat. No rapid card changes, shape tests, or forced tummy-time sessions.

  • Move one printed card slowly and pause to watch the baby's response.
  • Respond to a look, smile, or sound without asking the baby to imitate.
  • Offer short tummy-time moments while awake; stop when the baby is tired.
02Hello, Baby

Share real family photos, facial features, and gentle songs. Use the people and names familiar to your family, without expecting words or a consistent response to baby's name.

  • Prefer real faces or family photos and use familiar names.
  • Tell the baby what you are doing while dressing and name one feature at a time.
  • Learn the song during the day, then sing one line with the screen off.
03Peekaboo

Hide a little and discover together. Briefly cover the caregiver's face, partly hide a large toy, and share a safe mirror. Looking without searching or smiling is welcome.

  • Cover only the grown-up's face; keep the baby's nose and mouth clear.
  • Begin with a large toy partly visible; the grown-up may help reveal it.
  • Share a shatter-resistant rounded baby mirror without testing self-recognition.
04Animal Sounds

Take turns talking and singing with printed animal cards and a caregiver's voice. Repeat familiar short songs and use screen-free humming in a gentle bedtime routine.

  • Use one card at a time, name it softly, and pause for a response.
  • Lift the matching printed card while you sing; do not play background audio.
  • Learn lullabies during the day, then hum with the screen off at bedtime.
Sample lesson postcard S1

Follow a Black-and-White Card

Move slowly, then pause.

Read first

Read the short parent guide, then put the screen down and try it with a real object.

You could say

“Look at this card.”

“It moves slowly.”

See this lesson

One lesson, mostly outside the screen

Unfold “Beep Beep, Let’s Go”

This parent-guidance lesson starts with a prompt on screen. The real lesson is noticing vehicles from a safe place, looking at cards at home, and leaving room for a response.

Built-in lesson 12–17 months 2 min parent guidance
01
Read first Read it, then turn the screen off.

Read this first. An adult chooses a safe place to notice vehicles. Name one vehicle at a time. When none are nearby, use the large printed cards. There is no need to go to a road or water.

  • Name one vehicle that is actually in front of you.
  • Describe first, then invite your child to look or listen.
  • Use English as a short label, never instead of rich conversation.
02
You could say
This is a car, beep beep.
The bus is going by.
Did you hear it?
We stay in a safe place.
03
10 minutes outside the screen Notice vehicles safely

Prepare

  • Large vehicle cards

Try this

  1. Choose a safe place away from traffic and parking entrances.
  2. Point to one vehicle and say its name slowly.
  3. Pause for a look, movement, or sound. Keep your voice small.
  4. At home, choose one printed card at a time.

Safety

Stay with the child. Keep away from roads, rails, wheels, doors, and water. Do not use loud recorded vehicle sounds. Close windows and keep away from windowsills and furniture.

Easier

Look at one card at home. The adult names it and makes a soft sound.

More challenge

From a safe place, notice two vehicles and name each one.

?What sound did you hear?

05
Why this shape

Follow what the child is already noticing. Name it, pause, and wait for a response. Real conversation matters more than vehicle video.

Activity plugins

17 small, finite ways in

One activity does one thing: present it slowly inside a 16:9 stage, then hand it back to a grown-up and child. Third-party activities use a namespaced type.

High Contrast

01

Slow black, white, and red shapes

Type contrastAges 6–12 months

Word Cards

02

Look at one real word at a time

Type word-cardsAges 6–36 months

Peekaboo

03

Hide a little, then find it together

Type peekabooAges 7–18 months

Bubbles

04

Pop a finite set and see what is inside

Type bubblesAges 9–24 months

Counting

05

Touch one, say one, name the total

Type countAges 15–36 months

Quick Look

06

Briefly notice a small quantity

Type subitizeAges 24–36 months

Find It

07

Point to one large target

Type chooseAges 12–36 months

Sorting

08

Group things by one feature

Type sortAges 24–36 months

Sequence

09

Lay out a familiar routine

Type sequenceAges 18–36 months

Patterns

10

Notice two or three things repeating

Type patternAges 30–36 months

Story

11

Read one page and leave room to talk

Type storyAges 9–36 months

Song

12

Learn it for the grown-up, then sing offline

Type songAges 6–36 months

Move

13

Put a word into a body movement

Type movementAges 9–36 months

Calm

14

Slow down together, with no finish line

Type calmAges 12–36 months

Video

15

Short, grounded, and never auto-playing

Type videoAges 18–36 months

Web

16

One task in an isolated external page

Type webAges 24–36 months

Parent Guide

17

Read as an adult, then do the real activity

Type guideAges 6–36 months
Third-party activities keep the same boundaries.

Types are namespaced, such as example.hello-stars; the host owns focus, timing, the parent gate, and resources.

Read the plugin guide

Run it at home

One small server,devices kept in the house

The living-room screen does not need to know the wider internet. A Mac, NAS, or small computer serves the player on the home network; a phone opens the parent area only when needed.

One small server, devices kept in the house The living-room screen does not need to know the wider internet. A Mac, NAS, or small computer serves the player on the home network; a phone opens the parent area only when needed. Mac / NAS @sprout/server :4310 Living-room TV Player iPad on the sofa Safari / Capacitor Parent phone Parent area
01

Home network

The server listens on 4310 by default. The TV, iPad, and parent area use the same family network.

02

Data stays at home

The server stores family data in local SQLite; offline records stay on the current device.

03

Six-digit pairing

The player requests a six-digit pairing code that is valid for 10 minutes; the device token is not printed on the page.

04

No server required to start

The player ships with the sprout.core content pack, so a family can try offline before connecting a home server.

Try it · The television is off

Press the power,then decide how long to look

Open the television to try a quiet browser demo. Data stays in this browser; there are no pre-recorded voices, so speech uses the browser.

Screen off
  • 01Arrow keys + Enter = remote
  • 02Demo data stays in your browser
  • 03No pre-recorded audio; speech uses the browser

This is a small browser demo and does not connect to a family server.

Every tradeoff has a source

A library-card wallfor the reasons behind the choices

These sources appear in the evidence review's reference list. Each sentence is a product shorthand, not a replacement for the study.

105 references·Reference list count
012019

WHO guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep for children under 5

What it changed:Keep screens last in the priority order: under two, protect reading, stories, and shared play.

Read original
022016

AAP: Media and Young Minds

What it changed:Make under-18-month content an adult tool; if media is introduced, keep it high-quality and shared.

Read original
032022

China: Health care and nurturing guidance for children under 3

What it changed:Leave screen time empty for the first two years, with boundaries around meals, bedrooms, and session length.

Read original
042024

China: Early development service guidance for infants and toddlers

What it changed:Center responsive care and early learning opportunities instead of treating a screen as a playmate.

Read original
052025

China: Notice on protecting children's farsightedness reserve

What it changed:Use the stricter 0–3 default as the starting point, with outdoor time and less parental phone use around children.

Read original
062021

Learning from video: meta-analysis of the video deficit from ages 0 to 6

What it changed:Use video as a prompt, not an answer, and leave younger children room to transfer back to real life.

Read original
072018

Co-viewing supports toddlers' word learning from video

What it changed:Put the parent response at the center of co-viewing: pause, notice, then continue.

Read original
082024

Screen time and parent-child talk from 12 to 36 months

What it changed:Connect every lesson to real conversation so screens do not crowd out adult words and conversational turns.

Read original
092020

Parent coaching increases conversational turns and infant language

What it changed:Use child-directed speech and more conversational turns as the real language input.

Read original
102022

Guidance during play and children's learning: systematic review and meta-analysis

What it changed:Attach each screen prompt to guided play with a goal, support, and child participation.

Read original
112015

Putting education in educational apps

What it changed:Make interaction active, engaged, meaningful, and socially interactive.

Read original
122016

Screen time tantrums and natural stopping points

What it changed:Use a natural stopping point so leaving the screen is easier than being pulled into another episode.

Read original
132022

Manipulative design in mobile applications used by children

What it changed:Reject retention tricks, rewards, and exit barriers; leaving should be as easy as entering.

Read original

For developers

From one seedling,to a runnable monorepo

If you want to maintain content or extend an activity, this is the short map of boundaries, startup steps, and minimal examples.

Repository map
apps/
  server/                 Fastify + SQLite
  admin/                  Parent area · React + Ant Design
  player/                 TV / iPad player
packages/
  schema/                 Zod data contracts
  core/                   scheduler + screen policy
  plugin-sdk/             activity contract + tokens
  activities/             17 built-in activities
content/packs/             sprout-core
plugins/examples/          namespaced plugin examples
Node 22Fastifynode:sqliteReactViteAnt DesignCapacitorZod
corepack enable
export pnpm_config_verify_deps_before_run=false
pnpm install

pnpm build
pnpm start
Download v0.0.1

v0.0.1

The Android TV package and content pack are both on the Release page.

Licensing

Site code is MIT; course content is free for personal, family, and non-commercial educational use, with written author permission required for commercial use. Fluent Emoji is MIT, Lucide is ISC, and the local fonts are OFL-1.1.

Fonts: LXGW WenKai, Fraunces, and Nunito, all shipped as local subsets.

Questions

Leave the worry at the door;carry less inside

Will this make children watch more screens?

It is not designed to extend viewing. Ages 6–17 months get adult guidance only; co-viewing is off by default at 18–23 months; ages 24–36 months can also stay fully offline. Every lesson has a natural ending and an offline next step.

What about babies younger than six months?

The core pack starts at 6 months and has no child-side playback path for younger babies. Face-to-face response, floor play, singing, books, and professional child-health guidance come first.

Where does family data live?

When connected to a server, family data lives in local SQLite on the device running @sprout/server. Offline records stay on the current device.

Why are there no narration recordings in the repository?

The public repository does not ship macOS system voices because their license does not allow public redistribution. Without pre-recorded audio, the page uses the browser Web Speech API; a product build can use local or licensed TTS.

Is it free, and can it be used commercially?

Code is MIT. Course content is for personal, family, and non-commercial use under the repository's CC BY-NC 4.0 terms; commercial use requires written author permission. Third-party assets keep their own licenses.

Is this medical advice?

No. Sprout is not a medical device, treatment tool, or developmental diagnostic. Milestones are for everyday observation and conversations with professionals. Consult a pediatric or child-health professional when concerns persist or skills regress.