Real habits are the fuel.
KinDojo turns the habits you already want for your kids into a game they will actually play. You set the habits and the rewards. They earn every coin. You see every step.
KinDojo is in private testing with a small number of families. It works on any phone, tablet, or computer and installs from the browser. Not yet in an app store.
The Parent Center, drawn. Real screenshots arrive with the demo family.
Three parts, one loop.
Choose from a library of more than eighty habits written for ages five to eighteen, answer a short assessment and let KinDojo suggest a starting set, or write your own. Each habit has a difficulty, a schedule, and a way to verify it.
Every completed habit pays coins and experience. A daily check-in keeps a streak alive, and the streak is what unlocks the next boss in the game.
Kids spend coins on rewards you defined, from an hour of screen time to a trip to the trampoline park. You approve every request before it counts.
Three findings, and how KinDojo uses each one.
Habits form through repetition in a stable context, and it takes longer than most of us expect. Rewards that arrive immediately keep people going far better than rewards that arrive later. And kids stick with things they feel they chose and are getting better at. KinDojo is built around those three findings, and nothing in it can be bought: every coin is earned.
Habits take about two months to become automatic.
In one study, the average was 66 days, with a range from 18 to 254 depending on the person and the habit. In KinDojo, the streak is the long game, and streak freezes exist so one missed day does not erase two months of work.
Lally, van Jaarsveld, Potts, and Wardle (2010). European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998 to 1009.Immediate rewards predict whether people persist.
Rewards that arrive at the moment of the behavior predicted persistence better than larger rewards later. In KinDojo, coins and experience land the instant a habit is marked done, and the real-life reward is something the child chose and can see coming.
Woolley and Fishbach (2017). Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(2), 151 to 162.Autonomy and competence sustain motivation.
People stay motivated when they feel the choice is theirs and they can see themselves improving. In KinDojo, kids pick their rewards, choose which habits to tackle first each day, and watch their fighter grow from the habits they actually kept.
Ryan and Deci (2000). American Psychologist, 55(1), 68 to 78.Everything you do happens in one place.
The Parent Center works from any device, and a co-parent can share it with you.
- DashboardWhich habits are getting done, which are being missed, and how this week compares with last.
- Habit plannerSuggestions by age group, a seven-question assessment that produces a starting plan, and a custom-habit builder. Daily, weekdays, weekly, scheduled, or as the chance arises.
- Real-life rewardsYou write the reward and set its coin price. Kids request it with their coins, you approve, and a running list shows what you have approved and still owe.
- Coin bountiesOne-time challenges with a coin payout, for the chores and projects that do not fit a routine.
- ActivityA bank statement for each child showing every coin earned and spent, with the habit or reward behind it.
- Co-parentsInvite another adult into the family with a link. Both of you see the same dashboard and can approve rewards.
Each child gets a fighter, a training room, and a ladder of twenty bosses.
- Habits train the fighterSix categories, each of which permanently upgrades a different stat. Every twenty completions in a category is a permanent raise.
- Streaks open bossesEach boss needs a run of check-in days. Streak freezes absorb a missed day; bosses pay them out, and they can be bought with coins.
- Matches are earnedMove, strike, block, duck, jump. The boss telegraphs before it hits. Mashing beats the first boss, barely. It will not beat the fifth.
- The weekly raceSiblings start from zero every Monday. This week's habits decide the podium.
The six categories
Every habit a parent adds belongs to one category, so the fighter a child builds is a record of the habits they actually kept. Ranks follow the belt ladder, white to black.
What KinDojo does not do.
- No ads. No selling of data.KinDojo shows no advertising and does not sell or share personal information for advertising.
- No in-app purchases or subscriptions.There is nothing to buy inside the app. Coins are game points with no cash value.
- Kids cannot sign up on their own.A parent creates each child's profile, consents to the collection described in the children's privacy section, and can delete the profile at any time.
- No full birthdates, no photos, no chat.KinDojo asks for a child's birth month and year, used only to determine age and which habits to suggest. Children cannot message anyone, and nothing a child enters is visible outside the family.
- No outside links in the child's view.Product links on rewards, including affiliate links, appear only in the Parent Center.
- The scorebook is on the server.Every coin is a receipt in a ledger the app cannot edit from the phone. Balances are totals, not stored numbers.
Affiliate links on rewards, shown to parents only.
KinDojo is free to use. When a parent adds a reward, they can attach a link to the product page. Some links KinDojo provides, now or in a future curated reward gallery, are affiliate links. If a parent buys through one of those links, KINDOJO LLC may earn a commission at no additional cost to the parent. The links are never shown to children, and the app does not display advertising.
Tapping a reward link leaves the app and opens the retailer's website, which is governed by that retailer's own privacy policy. Amazon reports to us only aggregate clicks, orders, and commissions by link; it does not tell us who clicked or who bought. Details are in the privacy policy.
Made by a parent, for a house like yours.
I built KinDojo for my own kids, because the chore chart on our fridge stopped working the week it went up. What finally stuck was not a bigger reward. It was making each habit small enough to do today, paying out right away, and letting them watch a streak grow that they did not want to break.
KINDOJO LLC is a Washington limited liability company. The kids who started it are still the toughest testers it has, and the shiba is Kinji, who keeps the family's streak flame in the app.
Want to try it with your family?
KinDojo is being tested by a small number of families before it reaches the app stores. If you would like yours to be one of them, write to us and say a little about your kids' ages.