The Littles · Ages 3 to 4
Come play in the Rainbow Garden!
About 15 cozy minutes a night that grow the listening and sound skills children need before reading: rhyme, first sounds, blending. We show you every word to say.
7 days free. No card. See one night
or read one night free, no account
Built on the science of reading: sound games first, then letters, in a research-informed curriculum.
Hi! I’m Nan. Want to play with sounds?
Example
Play a sound game with Nan
A minute of sound play, the way every Play Time begins.
No test for little ones. Nan plays a rhyming game with your child, and Play Time starts tonight.
How it works, in seven parts
Warm-up
1 minute
Sound Time
3 minutes
Hear it, Say it!
1 minute
Letter Time
2 minutes
Sound Time Again
1 minute
Letter Time Again
2 minutes
Story Time!
5 minutes
No test for little ones. Play Time starts tonight.
One night with a Little
Sounds grow here!
No prep needed. We show you every word to say.
Tonight, about 15 minutes, side by side.
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Part 1: Warm-up
1 minute. A game you know.
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Part 2: Sound Time
3 minutes. We tell you what to say.
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Part 3: Hear it, Say it!
1 minute. One sound, out loud.
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Part 4: Letter Time
2 minutes. Song, names and sounds.
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Part 5: Sound Time Again
1 minute. Play it again.
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Part 6: Letter Time Again
2 minutes. Find the letter.
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Part 7: Story Time!
5 minutes. Any book you love, or ours.
Wake the sleepy sunflower!
Hop the rainbow stones!
Seven sound skills, from big sounds to small ones, that keep coming back. Every night is play, never a test: games return with a little less help each time.
Choose a stone to see a game.
Listening Hearing familiar sounds around the house and in stories.
Rhyme recognition Do these two words rhyme? Clap if they do.
Rhyme production Can you think of a word that rhymes with “cat”?
Syllables Clap the parts: wa-ter-mel-on. How many claps?
Alliteration Which word starts with the same sound: moon, milk, or bed?
First sounds What sound does “sun” start with? Sss.
Blending Put these sounds together: /m/ /a/ (a, like in apple) /t/. Mat!
Next: letters, stories and what comes after!
How it leads into reading
- Play TimeAges 3 to 4Each night, in seven short parts: sound games, this week’s two letters with the alphabet song, and a story you read together. An introduction to letters and their sounds, not the whole code.
- First BooksAge 5, when sounds are strongThe main program begins: it teaches the full code, step by step, and your child starts reading real words in small, silly books built from sounds your child knows.
- The big story worldsWhen your child can blend sounds into wordsThe adventure worlds open: dragons, detectives, deep space.
Turning 5 soon? Try the free reading check. It takes a few gentle minutes, and there’s no account or card, just an email to see the result. For ages 3 to 4 there’s no check: Play Time starts on night one of your free week. Try the free reading check
Two new letters swim by each week!
Sing the alphabet song, find the two new letters on the chart, say each name and sound, and do the action. Two new letters come each week, with review weeks built in.
Say hi to the frog!
- mRub your tummy: mmmm, yummy!
- sSlither like a snake: sssss.
- fBlow out a birthday candle: ffff.
Story time under the big tree!
Read any book you love, or one of ours. Three simple prompts keep your child talking about the story.
Find the owl in the tree!
The three prompts
- What happened? “What were the three noises Nan heard?”
- Why? “Which noise was the loudest?”
- What would you do? “Can you make Dad’s snore sound?”
The questions change with every story. These three are from Nan and the Noisy Night.
See how Littles works
How Play Time builds the sound skills your child needs before reading begins.
1 minute 30 seconds · captions available
The Grown-up Gate
Everything a parent needs, in one place.
One price, the whole family
7 days free. No card.
Founding family price
$29 a month after 7 days freeor $299 for a full year (about $25 a month)
That is about $1 a night for the whole family. The year plan costs about the same as 3 hours with a private reading tutor, and comes to about $150 a child with 2 children, or about $100 with 3.
Join now and your price stays the same for as long as you’re with us.
- 7 days free, no credit cardIncludes nightly Play Time games and stories, and a printable skills checklist.
- One price for the whole family. Your little one and any big kids, ages 3 to 18.
- Calm by design: no ads, no racing clocks, no lives to lose, nothing to buy inside the app
- Cancel anytime, on your own, in about a minute
Play Time is being reviewed now by a reading specialist with 41 years of experience teaching children to read.
Secure payment by Stripe. We never see your card number. Pay with your state’s ESA or scholarship →
State funding (ESA, education savings account): direct pay today in Alabama, Arizona and New Hampshire; buy first and get paid back in 8 more states; approved, in final review in Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Utah and Wyoming (these do not pay yet).
Built on the science of reading
Play Time starts with sound games and adds two new letters a week.
Why we start with sound play
Before a child can read, a child needs to hear the sounds inside words. That is what phonological awareness is, and decades of reading research name it, with knowing letter sounds, as one of the strongest predictors of early reading success.
Play Time is a research-informed curriculum. Its games move between big sounds (listening, rhyming) and small ones (first sounds, blending), with two new letters a week so sounds and letters connect. The order and the pace are our own choices, not rules from research, and Play Time has not been tested in a study of its own yet.
English has about 44 speech sounds. Play Time is an introduction: letter names, a first sound for every letter, and hearing sounds in words. It is not the whole code. At about 5, A New Page’s main program teaches the full code, step by step.
No worksheets. Hardly any screen time: the screen is for you, and the story can be any book on your shelf.
Gentle and safe, always. No ads, no racing clocks, nothing to buy, and hardly any screen time for your little one. Just you, your child and about 15 minutes of silly sounds, letters and stories.
Who reviews it: the green chair story
A New Page is Structured Literacy: the explicit, systematic approach the International Dyslexia Association recommends, in the Orton-Gillingham tradition, for struggling and dyslexic readers.
Play Time is seven short parts of sound games, letters and a shared story for ages 3 to 4, and it is being reviewed now by a reading specialist with 41 years of experience teaching children to read. The green chair story →
We’re new, and building this with our first families.
Questions parents ask
What ages are the Littles for?
Ages 3 to 4, for a child who isn’t reading yet. Your little one starts with Play Time: sound games, this week’s two letters, and a shared story, in the same seven short parts every night.
What happens first?
The same seven short parts every night, about 15 minutes: Warm-up (1 minute), Sound Time (3), Hear it, Say it! (1), Letter Time (2), Sound Time Again (1), Letter Time Again (2), and Story Time! (5). Two painted lantern-garden stories take turns night by night, and two new letters come each week.
When do the First Books start?
Usually around age 5, once your child knows about 12 letter sounds and can blend them. The First Books open one at a time.
Does my little one need the reading check?
No. For ages 3 to 4 there is no check: Play Time begins on night one of your free week.
What comes after the Littles?
When your child can put sounds together into words, the big story worlds open: dragons, detectives, deep space. See the worlds for ages 5 to 10 →
Will my price go up?
No. If you join now, you keep the founding family price for as long as you’re with us. Pausing doesn’t change it. If our prices change later, that’s only for families who join after.
Goodnight, garden. See you tomorrow!
One sound game
We tell you what to say
- ModelYou show how
Listen: cat, hat. Those rhyme! They end with the same sound: at.
- TogetherYou do it together
Do “bed” and “red” rhyme? Let’s clap if they do!
- Your turnYour child tries
Do “sun” and “map” rhyme? You tell me!