For the whole family, on every device. No subscription, no trial, nothing to cancel.
Real things to pour, match and fold, for ages 2–6. Every play time ends on its own. After, you see what they practised.
If you unlock in month one, this is every charge Lowshelf will ever make.
Year two: $0. Year three: $0. Nothing renews.
You choose 5, 10 or 15 minutes. When the time is up, the room does the rest, with no words and no countdown. There is no “one more” button.
Over the last minute the window light turns amber and dims. The sound eases down.
A linen cloth covers the trays not in use, so nothing new starts. A play already open carries on.
Each object glides into its tray, one at a time, and the cloth draws over the whole shelf.
A still shelf at dusk and the soft sound of a box lid closing. Then the screen is free to go dark.
The child never sees a countdown. A grown-up can start a new play time from the parent area, behind a gate. The timer is never used to sell: the free part ends the same gentle way.
Ten real jobs from a home, each one skill at a time. Realistic pictures and real recorded sounds: a pour, a drawer, a box lid. No characters, no talking animals. The child’s screens have no words, so they work in any home language. The grown-up area is in English for now.
A steady hand, stopping at a line.
In the free twoAiming, pouring gently, noticing wet soil.
Telling shapes apart, each in its place.
Looking closely at pattern and size.
In the free twoScrubbing until it’s clean, and checking.
Lining up edges along a line.
Placing stems one by one, choosing.
Peeling, slicing, clearing away.
Steady carrying from bowl to bowl.
Comparing sizes, putting them in order.
$0
$14.99 once
Prices here are in US dollars. The App Store shows your local price, for example in the UK, Canada and Australia, before you pay anything. Refunds go through Apple, as with any App Store purchase.
Behind a grown-up gate, you see what each child did today, in plain words, and one way to try it with real things at home.
It says “practised”, not “learned”. It tells you what happened, and sends the play back to a real jug.
In the app, the water stops at the line.
5, 10 or 15 minutes. There is no “off”, because ending on its own is the point.
Each picks their own symbol (a pear, an acorn, a shell, a feather) and gets their own note.
A switch in the parent area hides any activity, or a whole theme like Kitchen or Garden. Hidden ones never show on the shelf. Nothing is pushed or suggested.
Volume, room sounds and touch feedback, each on its own switch.
Version 1 has no holidays, seasons or causes on the shelf. Anything like that added later arrives switched off, for you to turn on if you want it.
A step-by-step guide to Apple’s Guided Access, which keeps the device on Lowshelf until you turn it off.
Your child’s history stays on the device. Nicknames are optional and never leave it.
For this waitlist we keep your email and when you joined, to tell you when Lowshelf launches. Nothing else is collected here. The full privacy page.
Screens aren’t the goal. For the times you need ten minutes, these are calm ones, and the note sends the play back to a real jug.
Lowshelf is Montessori-inspired, which for us means four things you can check in the app:
Children aged 2 to 6, with difficulty set per child in three age bands. It isn’t made for children under 2.
iPhone and iPad. There is no Android version yet.
No. It works in airplane mode from the first launch, so it’s ready for a flight or a waiting room.
Pouring water and Matching socks, in full, and every parent feature, for up to 4 children. They never expire and they aren’t time-limited.
You pay $14.99 once. Apple Family Sharing shares it with every device in your family group, so a grandparent’s iPad is covered too if they’re in the group. Nothing renews.
The App Store sets the price in your own currency, for example pounds in the UK and dollars in Canada and Australia, and shows it before you pay. It is still one payment, once.
Refunds for App Store purchases go through Apple, the same as any app.
Both. The UK and Australian versions say “practised”, “colour” and “mum”; the US version says “practiced”, “color” and “mom”.
We don’t have a date yet. When it’s on the App Store, everyone on the waitlist gets one email.