OUR STORY
It started with a bedtime story.
Calmly Kids began with our daughter, Luna, and something we noticed whenever we sat down to read together.
A story could capture her attention in a way that another reminder or instruction often couldn’t. She wanted to know about the characters, what happened to them, and how their stories ended.
Before bedtime, those moments felt especially precious. The day’s energy would begin to settle. There was something to listen to, something to imagine, and someone she loved right beside her.
We wanted to bring a little of that feeling into the stories we made: curiosity, warmth, and space to slow down.
Not to replace a parent reading a book. But to offer something thoughtful for the moments when a family reaches for an app.
Old stories. A gentler way forward.
Part of our inspiration came from a book Joe remembered from his own childhood: Struwwelpeter. Its strange characters and extraordinary consequences were fascinating to him as a child. These were stories that stayed in his imagination long after the book had been put away.
Revisiting that kind of storytelling as parents, though, we felt differently about the harsher parts. We wanted to keep the curiosity—the feeling of wondering what might happen next—without relying on violence, humiliation, or frightening punishments.
What would a cautionary tale look like if the child wasn’t simply punished at the end? What if they were given a way forward?
That became an important part of Calmly Kids: stories about everyday choices, told with imagination, and written towards a hopeful ending.
The little story that became something bigger.
One of the early stories we told Luna was about a girl called Lucy, who loved watching television. Lucy watched for so long that her eyes began to feel tired and sore. But the point of the story wasn’t to frighten her—or the child listening.
It was what Lucy did next.
She switched off the television, took a break, and discovered how much there was to enjoy away from the screen. By the end, she was outside, playing, and feeling happier.
When Luna wanted to see pictures of the character, illustrations gave us a way to bring Lucy’s imaginary world to life. There was Lucy facing a problem. There she was taking a different path. And there she was enjoying what happened next. That combination of a story, a picture, and a reassuring conclusion became one of the starting points for Calmly Kids.
The lesson wasn’t “something terrible will happen to you.”
It was “there’s another choice you can make.”
Stories about choices, not labels.
You’ll find both Naughty and Nice stories in Calmly Kids. Those are names for different kinds of tales—not labels for the children listening to them.
Our cautionary stories explore habits, choices and consequences. Our gentler tales make room for kindness, confidence, curiosity and the everyday experiences of growing up. Across both, our intention is the same: to encourage understanding without making a child feel that a mistake defines who they are.
We know that something which looks simple to a grown-up can feel difficult to a child. Not every struggle is a refusal, and not every child needs the same explanation. That is why we want our stories to be starting points for conversation, not instructions for how to judge a child.
We aim to leave our characters with hope, support, and something they can try differently. And we encourage parents to preview stories and choose the ones that feel right for their own child.
A story to follow, not a feed to chase.
For our illustrated stories, we chose a deliberately simple format. A still illustration remains on screen while the story is narrated. The words appear alongside the narration, and the concluding pictures are revealed when the story reaches its ending.
The interest comes from following what happens—not from a constant stream of changing videos.
In our own home, we noticed that Luna would listen and wait to discover how the story ended. Compared with some of the busy videos she encountered, this felt like a more settled experience for her. That is our family’s observation, not a promise that every child will respond in the same way.
It helped shape what we wanted to make: something with room to listen, imagine, and talk. A story with an ending also offers something we value—a moment to finish, put the device down, and move on to something else.
Yes, it’s still screen time.
We make an app, so we think it is important to say this clearly:
A screen is not a replacement for sharing a book, playing outside, having a conversation, or spending time together.
Those things come first.
Our own approach is to treat screen time as a last resort, not the starting point. We do not want Calmly Kids to become a reason to replace reading together or add more screen time to a child’s day.
But we also know that family life does not always follow the plan. There are journeys, long waits, difficult afternoons, and moments when a parent needs a little breathing room. We understand why a phone or tablet sometimes becomes part of the picture.
We are not here to make anyone feel guilty about that.
Our question was simply: when those moments happen, could we offer something less busy and more considered? That is what we are trying to do.
We encourage families to keep their own boundaries, share stories when they can, leave room for questions, and stop when a child needs a break. For us, the most important part of storytime has never been the device. It is the connection around the story—and the life waiting beyond it.
Familiar voices belong in the story, too.
The voice telling a story can be part of what makes it special. That is the idea behind Magic Narration: letting a story be told in a familiar voice created from a short recording.
The narration is AI-generated, rather than a recording of that person reading every story, and a voice should only be created with the speaker’s permission.
It is another way to bring something personal to storytime. Never a replacement for someone being there, but a familiar sound when they cannot be.
From our family to yours.
Calmly Kids grew from stories we wanted to share with our own daughter. We are still listening, learning, and thinking carefully about what belongs in that experience.
Our hope is simple: to make stories that invite curiosity, offer gentle lessons, and leave room for a little more connection.
Sometimes that might happen through our app. And sometimes the best next chapter will begin when the screen is put away.
With love, The Calmly Kids family
Have a question, a story idea, or something you’d like us to understand about your family’s experience? We’d love to hear from you.
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