About Tiny Hands
By Mauro Ferrante · Updated
Tiny Hands is free play, learning, quiet time and movement for little ones, made by one dad in his evenings. There are no ads, no paywall and no in-app purchases, and there never will be. It has four parts:
- Play: twenty browser games for ages 6 months to 10 years, from keyboard smashing to mental-math tricks. Open a game and play.
- Learn: free learning programs for ages 2 to 7. Reading and writing comes first, with Bubba the whale. Numbers, money and music come next.
- Feel: a calm-down corner, where children breathe slowly with Lulu after a big feeling or before bed.
- Move: short dance and movement breaks with Momo, for burning off energy indoors.
How it started
It started when my toddler discovered my computer keyboard and urgently needed to press every key. The first game I built, Kaboom Keys, was a safe way to let her mash the keyboard without wrecking my work.
Seeing how much she loved it, I went looking for other games we could play together. Most were either paid, packed with ads, or just not quite right for someone that small. So I kept building: a stacking game, a memory game, a piano, a town to explore, and now twenty games in all.
Then I wanted the same for learning: something gentle and good for a first go at reading, without a subscription. That became Learn. Feel and Move answer two other things every parent needs: help with big feelings, and a way to burn off energy on a rainy day.
The rules I build by
- Free, and staying free. No paywall, no premium tier, no "unlock more levels". Not now, not later.
- No ads. A toddler can't tell an ad from a game, so there are none.
- An account only where it helps. The games open straight away, with no sign-in. Learn's programs, and Feel and Move when they open, use a free Tiny Hands account, so each child's progress is saved and carries on on any device. One account holds a family's children, or a whole class for a teacher.
- Voices for children who can't read yet. Biscuit, Bubba and the other characters explain each game out loud (in English for now), and cheer when a child gets it.
- Nothing to break. Every game captures the keyboard while it runs, so a baby can mash freely without closing windows or sending emails.
- No game over for the little ones. Games for under-fives have no fail state. Older kids get gentle retries and lives, never a buzzer.
- Built on research. The learning programs follow what research says works, such as systematic phonics for reading, and the sources are listed on each program's page.
Privacy, in plain English
There are no ads and no ad trackers. Visits, which games are opened and a few button taps (like the donate button) are counted with Google Analytics, with its advertising features switched off; in Europe, only if you allow it. Game progress, best scores and saved drawings are stored in your browser. If you sign in to a free Tiny Hands account (we recommend it), they are also kept in your account, so they carry on on every device.
With a free Tiny Hands account (Learn needs one after the first level), each child has a profile: the first name or nickname you give, the year they were born if you want, a picture they pick, and their progress in Learn and the games. It is saved to your account so it isn't lost, only you can see it, and you can delete the account and everything in it at any time.
If you donate through the "Donate" button, the payment is handled entirely by Stripe on their own page; this site never sees your card details. The fonts and pictures are served from this site, so loading it doesn't contact Google or anyone else. The full details are in the privacy policy.
What it runs on
Any modern browser on a phone, tablet, laptop or Chromebook. Most games support both keyboard and touch. Once they have loaded, the games keep working with a patchy connection.
Credits
The emoji artwork is Microsoft Fluent Emoji, used under the MIT license. The 3D characters (Biscuit, Bubba, Otto, Lulu, Momo and their friends) were designed for Tiny Hands with the help of AI image tools, and their voices are made with ElevenLabs. Everything else, code and design, is written by hand in plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript with no frameworks, which is why the site loads quickly on older tablets.
Support Tiny Hands
If Tiny Hands has given you a few minutes of peace, two things help enormously: share it with another parent or a teacher, or make a donation. Either way, it stays free and ad-free: it is my gift to other parents, and a donation is a kind thank-you, never a requirement.
Get in touch
Email me at hello@tinyhandsplay.com. Feedback, bug reports and game ideas are also welcome through the feedback form, and if your child has a game they wish existed, request a game: several of the games and many of the best fixes came from parents writing in.
— Mauro, a dad