Why the child has no account

Yearkeep has four roles, all adults. The child has a profile (names in each script, a date of birth, a photo) but no login, no screen time, and nothing to tap.

Why#

• The evidence for early screens is thin and the evidence for adult conversation, play, and movement is strong. Minutes on a device are minutes not spent with an adult.
• A child account would create a second product with a second set of incentives: engagement, streaks, rewards. The curriculum forbids rewards for the child.
• Privacy is simpler when the subject of the data is never a user of the system.

The one exception#

Her board is a full-screen page inside a parent's session, used together from about three and a half. The child taps a tray picture into Plan, a parent marks it done, she picks a face, and one entry is saved. There is no account behind it, no score, and no content for the child to consume. It exists because Plan-Do-Review is the routine with the strongest long-run evidence, and a picture board is how a pre-reader takes part.

Mastery ladders#

A child may move her own ladder marker on her board. The move waits for a parent to confirm. Owning the next rung is the point; a judgement about her is not.

What the child does get#

A yearbook at each birthday, her own words recorded in it, and adults who looked.