I built a free reading and math site for my own kids. Here's what it does.

I'm a parent, and I built Peabody (peabody.kids) because my kids are two grades and a whole middle-school apart, and I couldn't find one free place that fit both. My youngest is in kindergarten, my oldest in 7th grade. Most kids' sites are built for one age, want an email before they let you in, or show ads between the lessons. I wanted one place where either of them could sit down, tap once, and start.

What it does

• Stories at the right reading level. There are 13 reading levels, from a first book with one short sentence a page to long chapters. A child starts at the level that fits their grade and moves up as they read. You can read the whole open library with no account at all.
• Practice that doesn't repeat itself. A word or math fact answered right on the first try is done for good. Ones that were missed come back. It is meant to feel like a game and not like homework.
• Games that ask the real questions. The math and reading practice sits inside the arcade games, so a child is playing and a times-table fact is the thing that opens the door.
• Printables. There are free worksheets by grade, reading passages with questions, and coloring pages, because sometimes you want paper.

What it doesn't do

It doesn't replace a teacher, and it doesn't diagnose anything. It sees taps, not faces or voices, so it can tell you what your child missed, not why. I wrote about that limit in where is my child stuck.

Why free, and why no sign-up

Peabody is free for the rest of 2026. A child can read and play without an account, and nothing about them is needed to do it. If a grown-up wants to see what their child did, there is a free grown-up account. There are no ads, and the pages say plainly how AI is used with kids: what it does, what it never does and what is never sent.

What's still rough

It is a one-person project, and it shows in places. Some games are more polished than others. A few pages are still being worked out, and the grown-up side (the screens where you see what your child did) is plainer than the kids' side. Some things I wanted, like a way for kids to play together safely, are built carefully or not at all, because the rule I keep coming back to is that a child's safety comes before anything clever.

How a ten-minute session goes

A child taps in and picks a story from the free library, which is sorted by reading level, so a kindergartner and a seventh grader see different shelves. After the story there are a few questions about what they read, and any word they stumbled on goes into the next practice round. Math works the same way: facts they know get out of the way, and the ones they don't know come back until they do. Then there are games, which ask the same kind of question in a different costume.

Questions parents ask me

Is it really free? Yes, free for the rest of 2026, with no ads.

Does my child need an account? No. A child can read and play without one. A grown-up account is only for seeing progress.

What ages is it for? Kindergarten through 8th grade. The youngest readers start with one-sentence picture books.

Is the AI writing things my kid reads? Some stories are made up by an AI at the child's reading level, with safety checks. The AI policy lists what the AI does and never does.

Try it, then tell me what's wrong

If you have a child between kindergarten and 8th grade, try it with them for ten minutes and see where they get bored or stuck. That is the most useful thing anyone can tell me. I read every message.