VocabPeek Junior: First Words

iOS

First English words, played on the Home Screen

VocabPeek Junior teaches first English words to children aged 2 to 5, on the family iPhone or iPad. A widget on the Home Screen says a word — dog — and the child taps the dog out of three pictures. There is nothing to read, and no lesson to sit down for: a round is three words, about a minute, played before the child opens anything else.

On the App Store for iPhone and iPad, iOS 18 and later, in the Kids category for ages 5 and under. Every word and every feature is free for now.

App Store artwork headed 'Learn right on the Home Screen. Tiny first-word lessons without opening the app.': an iPhone Home Screen with the VocabPeek Junior widget showing the word banana beside pictures of a cat, a banana and an apple — The widget is where most of the learning happens.

App Store artwork headed 'Notes like a teacher's report. Helpful weekly notes for parents.': an iPhone showing Lily's notes, rated Very good, saying she learned 34 new words and still mixes up red and blue — A few sentences for the parent, written on the device from the child’s taps.

App Store artwork headed 'Match the word to the picture. Tap a word, then find its picture.': an iPhone showing the words dog, apple and car beside pictures of a dog, a car and an apple, with dog matched — A matching round, every few rounds in the app.

App Store artwork headed 'Remembers what your child forgets. Review timing adapts for each child.': the parent corner with a panel of pairs often mixed up, ice cream and juice, one and two, red and blue — Pairs the child mixes up are put side by side until they are told apart.

App Store artwork headed 'Hear it. Tap it. No reading needed. Kids listen first, then choose the picture.': an iPhone showing the word dog with a speaker button above pictures of a cat, a dog and an apple — The word is heard, and the answer is a picture.

App Store artwork headed 'Up to 4 kids, one device. Separate profiles, no ads, and offline play.' with Offline and No ads labels: an iPhone showing three animal pictures for Lily, Max and Mia — Each child has their own animal and their own progress.

The widget is the product. It comes in the medium and large sizes on iPhone and iPad, and extra large on iPad, and the child plays on it directly:

A learning card introduces a new word: one big picture, the word in large letters, and the word spoken when the picture is tapped.
A quiz card says a word and shows three pictures. A wrong tap turns that picture pale, the word is spoken again, and the child keeps going until they find it. One picture means listen, three mean find it — the child can tell the cards apart without reading.
A round is three words, then a star and a button to play more in the app. The next round on the widget opens two hours after the last one finished, so the words are spread across the day rather than crammed into one sitting.

A word the child may already know is asked first, before it is taught. Get it right straight away and the learning card is skipped.

Spaced for small children

Words come back on a schedule built from research on how young children keep new words: a correct answer straight away does not mean a word is learned, spacing beats repetition in one go, and sleep helps a word stick. So a word returns after a few hours, then a day, three days, a week, and later at longer gaps to keep it.

A miss sends a word back a few hours, not into the next card, where the child would just be remembering the answer they saw a moment ago.
Pairs the child confuses — cow and horse — are put on the same card until the child picks the right one twice in a row.
New words wait until the child is keeping up with the ones they are learning. A child who is finding it hard gets fewer new words without anyone changing a setting.

The words are 418 everyday English words in 32 topics — animals, food, colours, numbers, letters, the body, vehicles, feelings and more — added in the order young children usually learn them, easy first.

A closer look on iPhone

01 / 10

Adding the widget

The parent sets the widget up once. The app shows how, step by step.

The "How to add the widget" screen with numbered steps: touch and hold an empty spot on the Home Screen, tap the + button at the top left, and find VocabPeek Junior in the list

A closer look on iPad

01 / 10

Adding the widget

The parent sets the widget up once. The app shows how, step by step.

The iPad "How to add the widget" screen with four numbered steps, the last showing the medium and large widget sizes and an Add Widget button

The child, Lily, and her progress in these screens are a sample profile, not a real child.

Playing in the app

The widget is enough on its own, but the app is there for a child who wants more: rounds of five words, with a round of matching pairs every few rounds. Answers in the app go into the same schedule, so playing a lot does not flood the child with new words.

For the parent

Everything for the parent sits behind a short parent check that a young child cannot pass.

Notes, like a teacher’s report. A few sentences about the child: new words this week, the topic they have just got hold of, the pair they still mix up, and one thing to try at home with the words they have just learned. They are written on the device from the child’s taps, with fixed sentences — no AI service and no server.
Progress by topic, and the words the child mixes up most often.
Topics on or off, and the pace: Normal, or Fast for more words in progress at once.
Up to four children on one device, each with their own animal, colour and progress.
A voice in American or British English, the one built into iOS. The app itself can be shown in English, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean or Traditional Chinese, and a short meaning under each word can be shown for the parent in the same languages, or switched off.

What it does not do

No account, no ads, no analytics, no tracking and no third-party code in the app. It needs no connection to play. Progress syncs between your own iPhone and iPad through your iCloud account, and stays on the device if iCloud is off. There are no links a child can follow out of the app.

Honest limits

The widget cannot speak first. iOS does not let a widget play a sound when it appears, so the child taps the speaker on the first card of a round; after that, each tap also says the next word.
No Lock Screen widget. The pictures need the room of a Home Screen widget.
iOS decides when a widget redraws, so a tap on the widget can take a moment to show.
English is the only language taught. The other languages are for the parent.
iOS 18 or later, iPhone and iPad.

Credits

Pictures are Fluent Emoji by Microsoft (MIT), with some from Google’s Noto Emoji and from Twemoji by X Corp and contributors (both CC BY 4.0). The order of new words draws on Wordbank’s MacArthur-Bates CDI data for the age at which children say each word.