Free learning games for kids, in English and Spanish
A small learning app for kids roughly 3 to 11, preschool through 5th grade,. Eleven activities, every line spoken aloud in both languages, and a practice schedule that quietly brings back whatever your child keeps missing.
- Free, with nothing to buy and no premium tier
- No ads, no trackers, no analytics of any kind
- No account needed to play
- Works offline, built for the family iPad
- Every line is spoken aloud, in English and Spanish
What Joya is
Practice that fits in the gaps of a day
Every child gets their own level in every skill, so two siblings can share one tablet without sharing a difficulty setting. Joya keeps track of which facts each child has and which ones keep slipping, then puts the slipping ones back in front of them sooner. There is no streak to protect, no timer shouting, and nothing to unlock with coins.
There is something to collect, since children collect. Twenty-four pieces per child, unlocked one at a time by playing, that build up into a scene of their own. It is not a currency and it cannot be bought or lost.
It installs to the home screen and runs offline after the first visit, which is the difference between a car trip that works and one that does not.
Forty-six seconds of it running, with sound, whenever you want it.
Read it instead
This is Joya, custom dad-built games for two kids, now open to yours.
It started with a dad handwriting column math and time on an analog clock. His son kept asking for more problems to work, and there is a limit to how many you can write out by hand.
So the app makes them, at exactly his level. And it remembers. Miss a fact and it comes back the same sitting. Get it right four times running and it leaves you alone for three weeks.
Every line is spoken out loud, in English and in Spanish. Written as Spanish, not run through a translator.
An optional account syncs progress between your devices. Skip it and nothing leaves this one. No ads, no trackers, and it works on a plane.
Joya. Free to play, anywhere.
The activities
All 11, playable today
Everything on this list is finished and open right now. More will follow, one at a time, as real kids need them. Nothing is teased here that you cannot open tonight.
Numbers
Preschool to 2nd grade
Counting, number recognition, and what a number actually looks like as a pile of things you can count.
Skip-Count Bridge
Kindergarten to 5th grade
Counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s. The on-ramp to multiplication, and the reason times tables later feel like a shortcut instead of a wall.
Column Math
Kindergarten to 5th grade
Multi-digit addition and subtraction on paper, carried and borrowed properly, one column at a time.
Flashcard Sprint
Kindergarten to 5th grade
Times tables on a spaced repetition schedule. The facts a child keeps missing come back sooner, the ones they own come back rarely.
Card Flip
Kindergarten to 5th grade
The same times tables, dealt as playing cards. Turn two over and say the product before the answer lands.
Clock
Kindergarten to 5th grade
Telling time on a real analog face, starting at the hour and working down to the minute.
Reading
More about reading in JoyaLetter Hunt
Preschool to 2nd grade
Letter shapes and the sounds they make, spoken aloud, in whichever language the child is playing in.
Story Time
Preschool to 5th grade
Real published picture books, read aloud page by page, with a few questions once the story is done.
More games
Shapes & Colors
Preschool to 2nd grade
Circles, squares, triangles, and the words for them, for children still learning to sort the world into kinds.
Meet the Pieces
Preschool to 2nd grade
How each chess piece moves, one piece at a time, before anyone tries to play a whole game.
Grid Master
Kindergarten to 5th grade
Finding e4 and g7 on a chessboard. The coordinate practice that makes every chess book readable.
Both languages
Spanish that is actually Spanish
Most bilingual apps for kids translate. An English sentence goes in, a Spanish-shaped sentence comes out, and a child who hears Spanish at home knows within a second that something is off.
Joya writes each language on its own terms. Real agreement, natural constructions, the phrasing a sentence would actually have. Every activity runs end to end in either language, and switching does not cost a child their place or their progress.
The short version
Why a dad built this
Joya is Spanish for jewel, and it is also the two kids it was built for: Jo from Johan, Ya from Yaretzi. Both of them are collectors, the kind who fill their pockets with anything that shines, so a name meaning jewel was never going to be argued with. In Argentina and Uruguay it doubles as an exclamation: say ¡joya! and you mean great, or all good. Nobody planned either of those. It is why the name stuck.
It started with two activities, column math and the clock, because Johan kept asking for more problems to work and there is a limit to how many a parent can write out by hand. So the app made them instead: endless, correct, and pitched at exactly his level. By the time his class reached multi-digit addition and subtraction, he had done it hundreds of times already. He was not meeting it for the first time. He was recognizing it.
Everything since has arrived the same way, when one of them actually needed it. That is why there are 11 activities and not sixty. So if your child needs something that is not here yet, say so. This is not a support queue and there is no roadmap to vote on. It is one person reading these and deciding what to make next.
Tell us what your kid needs next
Getting started
Let's set up your family
This is the whole of it. Open Joya, add a child, pick a grade level and a language, and they are playing. No email, no password, no card, no download from a store. Add a second child and they get their own door, their own level, and their own language.
It takes about a minute, and everything you type stays on the device you type it on. An account exists if you want the same progress on the phone and the iPad, and it is the only thing on this page that asks for an email address.
Questions
What parents ask first
- Is it really free?
- Yes. Joya was built by a dad for his own two kids and then opened up for everyone. There is nothing to buy, no subscription, no premium tier, and no ads.
- Do I need an account?
- No. Add your kids and start playing. Everything stays on your device. A free account is optional and exists for exactly one reason: syncing progress between your own devices.
- What ages is it for?
- Roughly 3 to 11. The app asks for a grade level rather than an age, in three bands: before kindergarten, kindergarten through 2nd grade, and 3rd through 5th grade. Each child then carries their own level in each skill, so two siblings can share one tablet without sharing a difficulty setting.
- How real is the Spanish?
- It is written as Spanish, not as English pushed through a translator. Natural constructions, real agreement, the phrasing a sentence would actually have. Every activity runs end to end in either language.
- How does the practice schedule work?
- Joya keeps a separate record for every fact a child meets and schedules it by the Leitner system, the boxed-flashcard method that spaced repetition software is built on. Miss something and it comes back in the same sitting. Get it right and it waits a day, then three days, then a week, then three weeks. Practice concentrates itself on whatever is still shaky.
- Can I use it for homeschool?
- Plenty of families do, but be clear about what it is: practice, not curriculum. Joya drills the facts that need repetition, times tables, letter sounds, telling time, counting, and it tracks each child separately across three grade bands, from before kindergarten through 5th grade. It does not teach a scope and sequence or grade anybody.
- Are the voices real people?
- No, and we would rather say so than let you assume otherwise. Every line is generated speech, recorded ahead of time into audio files that ship with the app. That is why it sounds the same every time and why it still speaks with no connection.
- Does it work on an iPad?
- It was built on one. Joya installs to the home screen like an app and works offline after the first visit, which is the difference between a car trip that works and one that does not.
- What does Joya collect?
- Without an account, nothing leaves your device at all. With one: a parent email, your children's first names, their language and age band, and their progress. Nothing else, and no trackers or analytics either way.
Story Time reads real published picture books from StoryWeaver, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Each book keeps its author, illustrator, and license credit inside the app.
No sign-up, no download, no card
Open it, add your kids' first names, and start. Everything stays on your device unless you ask it not to.