For grown-ups

What this is, what it teaches, and what we do and don't collect. It's short, because there isn't much to say.

What Little Roos is

A free place for children roughly three to eight to play learning games. One game, one idea, done properly — telling a p from a q, counting, spelling, paying attention when it's hard. A new one arrives most Fridays.

It was made in the Blue Mountains by a parent whose own small boy is the quality-control department, and who tests every toy through the rigorous procedure only a small boy can manage.

What it costs

Nothing. There is no paid tier, no subscription and nothing to unlock. There is no advertising of any kind, and there never will be.

What we collect

Nothing about your child. There are no accounts, so there is nothing to sign up for and nothing to breach. No analytics script, no advertising pixel, no third-party code runs on this site at all — the site's own security policy blocks it, so it can't happen by accident either.

Which games have been played is remembered in your own browser, on your own device. It never leaves it, and we can't see it. The whole privacy page takes about thirty seconds.

Every game, by what it teaches

The home page is five places a child can tap. Each place is one kind of learning, and this is everything in them.

The Rustly Bush — letters and phonics

• Ps and Qs — Telling apart the letters children reverse most — p, q, b and d (ages 4-7)
• Waterfall — Spotting a letter quickly, under the gentlest kind of time pressure (ages 4-7)
• Sky Grass Dirt — Where a letter sits on the line — up in the sky, down in the dirt (ages 4-8)
• Dingo's Echo — Letter sounds, by hearing a sound and finding the letter that makes it (ages 3-6)
• Follow the Numbat — Writing lower-case letters in NSW Foundation Style: where to start, which way to go, when to lift (ages 4-7)

The Bobbing Billabong — numbers and counting

• Count on Me — Reading a number and putting it where it belongs (ages 3-6)
• Number Ninja — Adding and taking away, by finding the pair that works (ages 6-8)
• Bigger Than a Digger — Which numbers are bigger and which are smaller (ages 5-8)
• Ten in the Den — Making ten, by finding the two numbers that fill the frame (ages 4-7)

The Dusty Red — attention and impulse control

• Stroopy — Paying attention when the word and the colour disagree (ages 6-8)
• Hold It, Quoll! — Stopping yourself: tap the quolls that are awake, and let the sleepy ones sleep (ages 3-7)

The Quiet Deep — words and spelling

• Spelling Bee — Putting letters in order until they make a word (ages 5-8)
• A Rhyme at a Time — Hearing which words end the same way (ages 4-7)
• Blend It, Bandicoot — Blending sounds into words: hear s … u … n, and find the sun (ages 4-6)

The Bright Spot — shapes, colours and noticing

• A Shape in its Place — Telling shapes apart (ages 3-6)
• A Match for the Patch — Finding two colours that are the same (ages 3-6)
• Pelican's Patterns — Patterns: spotting what repeats, and working out what comes next (ages 3-6)

Every skill, and the games that practise it

Each game is tagged with the skills it practises, and each skill with where it sits in the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (ages three to five) and the Australian Curriculum v9 (Foundation to Year 2).

Letters and sounds

• Telling look-alike letters apart: Ps and Qs, Waterfall
  AC9EFLY11; EYLF 5.4
• Knowing the letters: Ps and Qs, Sky Grass Dirt
  AC9EFLY11; EYLF 5.4
• Spotting a letter quickly: Waterfall
  AC9EFLY11

Writing

• Where letters sit on the line: Sky Grass Dirt
  AC9EFLY08; AC9E1LY08

Words

• Spelling short words: Spelling Bee
  AC9EFLY13; AC9EFLY12; AC9E1LY13
• New words: Spelling Bee
  AC9EFLA08; EYLF 5.1

Numbers

• Reading numbers: Count on Me
  AC9MFN01
• Adding and taking away: Number Ninja
  AC9M1N04; AC9M2A02

Shapes, colours and patterns

• Colours: Stroopy
  EYLF 4.2

Attention and self-control

• Paying attention: Stroopy
  PSC Self-management; EYLF 1
• Holding something in mind: Spelling Bee
  EYLF 4.2

Playing without a signal

Add Little Roos to your home screen and it works offline. Every game your child has opened keeps working in the car, on a plane, or anywhere the signal gives up. Nothing needs downloading from a shop.

Using it in a classroom

You're very welcome to. It works on a whiteboard, there's nothing to log into and nothing that identifies a child. Spelling Bee lets you type your own word list — this week's spellings, a child's name — kept on that one device.

The Lub-Dub Club, a 3D heart adventure

A ride round the body with one little blood cell: how the heart pumps, what the valves do, where blood picks up oxygen and where it drops it off. Nine short chapters, every word spoken, then a five-question quiz. Start the ride, or read the guide for grown-ups, with every word it says and where each fact comes from.

Talk, the communication board

For children who can't rely on speech: tap pictures to speak. It's free, it works with no internet, and nothing about your child leaves the device. Open Talk, or read the guide for grown-ups first.

The Friday email

One email, one Friday, one new game. Nothing else, ever, and one click to stop. It's the only thing on this site that asks you for anything.

The list opens shortly — the sign-up form goes here once a provider is chosen.