Set up Kid Zone

Kid Zone is a separate, restricted view. A child signed into it sees their own jobs and progress, and none of the grown-ups’ calendar, documents or private notes.

Before you start

Add the child as a family member first — see add a child — and give them a few tasks, or the screen will be empty.

Turning it on

1. More → Kid Zone, and tap the child whose turn it is.
2. Hand them the device. It is still your phone, signed in as you, so Equal House stays on their board until you hand it back.

Pressing and holding a child’s picture on the Tasks tab opens the same board, so it asks first: “Open Mia’s board?”

A child who will use Equal House on their own signs in to Kid Zone with the family’s picture code, on a device your family has approved or on their own device. The code is Family code (for kids), under More → Your Account. How children sign in explains it.

What a child can do

• See the chores that belong to them, today and this week
• Tick them off, earning stars and pocket money. Each job and routine says what it pays, like “3 ⭐ · 30p”, and a routine can pay for each day it is finished. Children aged 4 to 6 see words instead of numbers.
• Read a job’s How to do it note, folded under the job, when a grown-up has written one
• See their routines, and under Great work this week the routines they finished as well as the chores
• See what they have earned, in your household’s currency

Keeping pocket money off their board. Turn off Pocket money on their board under the child in More → Settings → Children’s boards, and their board shows stars only, including on your phone when you hand it over. Chores and routines still pay, and you still see the money there. An older version of Equal House on the child’s own device still shows it, so update that too.

Pictures for each job

Every chore and routine step on a child’s board gets a picture, chosen by Equal House from its words, so a child who is not reading yet can still find their job: “Fill your water bottle” shows a 🥤, “Times tables” a ➗, “Piano practice” a 🎹, “Brush your teeth” a 🪥. You do not have to choose them. Just write the job the way you would say it. A job we do not have a picture for yet shows a star, and we add new pictures as families use new chores.

The board also copes with larger text: at a bigger text size the “I did it!” button moves under the job, full width.

Bric on the board

Bric sits at the bottom of the board with one line at a time. When the board opens, he says what’s new since the child last looked:

• “A grown-up said well done for Feed Biscuit”
• “Sam sent you a thank-you”
• “Let’s have another go at Tidy your room”

The child taps the line to see the next one. Nothing moves on by itself, so a child who reads slowly isn’t rushed. The jobs say it too: Well done! on a job a grown-up has confirmed, Another go on one sent back, and New on a thank-you they haven’t seen.

News appears when the board opens or the app is brought back, not when the child pulls down to refresh, so refreshing can’t be used to fish for rewards. A job a grown-up has only just approved waits a minute or so before it’s announced, in case they change their mind.

From 19:30 until midnight, when there’s nothing new to say, the line Bric rests on says it’s nearly bedtime and he looks sleepy. News still comes first, with his usual face. A Quiet board has no Bric, so no sleepy face either.

When a child aged 4 to 9 sends their last job of the day, Bric shows a big “Every job done!” card, at most once a day. There’s no streak to keep up: a missed day costs nothing.

Lively, calm or quiet

Each child’s board can be:

• Lively: Bric joins in, and the youngest get big moments and confetti.
• Calm: Bric keeps still, with no big moments.
• Quiet: no Bric and no vibration, just the jobs and anything new in words.

Automatic follows the child’s age: Lively up to 12, Calm from 13. To choose, or to correct a child’s age, use More → Settings → Children’s boards. Give a date of birth if you can, so the board keeps up as they grow.

A child can’t change it from their board: only a grown-up can. From 19:30 until 06:00 every board is calm.

If you choose Calm or Quiet and that’s calmer than the child’s age would give, the board tells them why once on each device, and again if you change it, after anything new and outside bedtime: Bric says “A grown-up chose a calm board for you. I’ll keep still.” and a Quiet board, which has no Bric, says “A grown-up chose a quiet board.”

Sounds. A child’s board makes no sound unless a grown-up turns on that child’s Sounds, the row under their Board in More → Settings → Children’s boards. Then, on Android phones and tablets, the board makes a small pop when the child finishes a routine, and a twinkle instead when that routine takes them past a star milestone. That’s all a child ever hears: nothing for sending a job, “Every job done!”, a well done or a thank-you. Sounds only play:

• on a Lively board, for ages 4 to 9 (a child with no age given counts as older);
• between 07:00 and 19:30, and never for a bedtime routine;
• while the phone isn’t on Silent or Do Not Disturb, or on a call. On Vibrate they still play, at the phone’s media volume.

The first time the board can make sounds on a device, Bric tells the child: “I can make little sounds now. A grown-up can turn them off.” It makes none there until he has. The child can’t turn them off from the board: turn off their Sounds to stop them. On a grown-up’s phone handed to a child, that phone’s own Sounds, in More → Settings → Celebrations, must be on too. A change reaches a child’s own device the next time their board opens. Hear them, under the children on an Android phone or tablet, plays both sounds so you can listen before you choose. Each child’s Sounds row shows on every grown-up’s phone, so any grown-up can always turn it off.

What they cannot do

A child signed in to Kid Zone cannot see the family calendar, other people’s tasks or pocket money, documents, or anything in Safe Space. Kid Zone is not the grown-up app with bits hidden — it is a different screen.

Paying out and starting afresh

Neither is on a child’s board, and that includes the board you open on your own phone and hand over. Both are in your part of the app:

• Paying out. When you hand over some pocket money, record it in More → Settings → Children’s boards. Tap Pay out pocket money… under the child, choose how much, and tap Mark paid. See pocket money.
• Starting afresh. In More → Settings → Children’s boards, tap Reset account… under the child. It asks first, and says what it does: “Stars, this week and pocket money all go back to zero, and routines start again. The chores and what was done stay as they are.” Only the household’s owner or an admin can reset a child’s account. For anyone else the row is greyed out.

Handing it back

The board you hand over is still your phone, signed in as you, so Equal House stays on it until you hand it back. It has no back arrow, and your phone’s back button and back swipe don’t leave it. Instead, Hand back lights up for a moment, so you can see the way off. A notification tapped while the child has the phone waits, and opens once you have handed the board back.

Nothing from the rest of your app shows on the board. If you had just ticked something off, its Undo goes as the board opens, so a child can’t take your tick back.

When you want your phone back, tap Hand back at the top of the board. At a very large text size it may have a line of its own, just under the child’s name. Your phone asks for its own lock: your fingerprint or face, or the PIN, pattern or password you unlock it with. Then you are back where you opened the board, or on the Tasks tab. If the check is cancelled or doesn’t match, the board stays where it is and says “Ask a grown-up to hand back.”

From version 1.17.0 of the app, Hand back is a clearer button at the top right of the board, and Back explains itself: pressing Back or swiping back brings up a card near the bottom of the board that says “This phone is in Mia’s Kid Zone.” and how to hand it back. The card’s own Hand back button asks for exactly what the one at the top asks for, so it is no way round your phone’s lock, and the card goes by itself after a few seconds. The first three times you hand a board over on a phone, a note just under Hand back says “When you’re done, tap Hand back up here”. Tap Got it to put it away.

Your phone’s own lock is the lock, so anyone who can unlock your phone can hand back, including a child who knows your PIN.

The lock holds while Equal House is in the background. If the app is closed or the phone restarts, Equal House opens on the same board, still locked. Being signed out doesn’t unlock it either: if Equal House asks you to sign in, it goes back to the board once you have. Nor does signing in with a different account: if that account has no family, or its family doesn’t include the child, Equal House lets it in but keeps the lock, and goes back to the board when you sign in again. It only unlocks by itself if that child is no longer in your family (it opens on the Tasks tab), or if you are no longer in a family at all.

If your phone has no screen lock when you hand it over, tapping Hand back only says “This phone has no screen lock. A grown-up can hold Hand back for 3 seconds.” Hold Hand back for 3 seconds and a Grown-ups only box asks a sum with the numbers written in words, like “What is thirty-seven times six?” Type the answer in figures to hand back. The box closes when most things open over Equal House, such as the notification shade, an app beside it in split screen or the phone’s assistant, and after 20 seconds without an answer. It doesn’t open at all if one of them came up while Hand back was being held. A box that closes like that costs no wait: hold Hand back again for a new sum. A wrong answer means waiting 30 seconds before Hand back can be held again, and each wrong answer after that doubles the wait, up to 16 minutes. That stops a small child, but not an older one who is good at maths, so we suggest setting a screen lock on your phone: “Set a screen lock on this phone, and Hand back will use it the next time you hand it over.”

A board handed over without a screen lock keeps to the hold and the sum until it is handed back, even if a screen lock is set in the meantime. The first screen lock on a phone can be set without a PIN, so it could be the child’s own.

For extra lock-down on Android, use your phone’s own app pinning (on some phones it is called screen pinning or pin windows). Without it, a child can still leave Equal House with the Home button, and from the phone’s settings they can clear Equal House’s data, which ends the lock along with your sign-in. Turn app pinning on in your phone’s settings, usually under Security, then pin Equal House from the recent apps screen. The phone then stays in Equal House until it is unpinned, and it can ask for your phone’s lock before it unpins. On an iPhone or iPad, Guided Access, in the Accessibility settings, does the same.

If a child will use Equal House on their own, have them sign in to Kid Zone with the picture code, ideally on their own device. A child signed in as themselves only ever sees their own board.

Approving completions

A grown-up confirms what a child has ticked off before it counts. That is what stops “done” being a matter of opinion at bedtime.

On the Tasks tab, a child’s ticks wait under Waiting for your OK. Confirm passes the well done on: their stars and any pocket money land, and their board says so next time they look. Send back gives it back to have another go.

When you confirm, Bric holds up a star on his open hand and the moment says Well done passed on to Mia, then leaves a bar with Undo for a few seconds. Undo puts the job back under Waiting for your OK and takes the stars and pocket money back.

Say thanks to Mia. At most once a week for each child, that bar also offers a thank-you. It goes to Mia herself, not attached to the job, so her board never pairs a job with the grown-up who confirmed it. It starts as “Thank you for helping — it made a difference.” and you can change it. It isn’t offered if you’ve already thanked her that week, and thanking is never part of the reward: a job is well done whether or not anyone says thank you as well.

Signing a child out

This is about a child signed in to Kid Zone as themselves. To get your phone back from a board you handed over, see handing it back.

A child’s Kid Zone sign-in does not end on its own. Signing out returns to the grown-up app, which will ask for whoever’s account it is.