How it works
We plan it. You play it.
Here is how the app shows up on your phone at the right moment, how every idea is tuned to your kid, how a squad works if you want one, and how a toddler's two-hour day also has a 30-minute version when you're busy.
On your phone
It comes to you. That's the whole trick.
A plan you have to go looking for is a plan you skip. Pod Squad lives on your phone and taps you on the shoulder at the moments that matter: the night before and the morning of. Everything is also in any browser, with the same login, for Sunday printing on a bigger screen.
It taps you on the shoulder
The night before: what to print and set out. The morning of: today's plan. Saturday: a recap of the week. You never have to remember to check.
A timer for every block
Tap Start and the Block Timer walks you through every block: the words to say, what to set out, when to move on. It nudges you even with your phone in your pocket.
Print from your phone
Every printable, one tap to AirPrint or share. The shopping list checks off as you shop.
One line, one photo
Log the win, snap the picture. It lands in your kid's portfolio and your squad's gallery.
Pod Squad for iPhone & Android
Free for 7 days · $0 today
Tuesday · Week 2
Hi Cassie. Today's ready.
🌈 Color Splash
Color Mixing Lab
2 of 7 blocks done · 35 min left
Meet Homie
The same great week, tuned to your family.
Homie is the helping hand behind the helping hand. Tell us who your kids are and how you like to live; Homie turns that into specific, explainable tweaks on every idea, snack, and week, and answers your questions in the moment.
Stage-sized
Every block reads differently for a 20-month-old and an almost-three-year-old. Homie tells you which notes to read first, per kid.
Lane-tilted
Tap up to three things your kid loves (trucks, puddles, the same book again) and Homie picks their lane from fifteen that cover a whole life. Each week gets one concrete tilt toward it. Explorer is the balanced default.
Near you
Share your location once and every park, museum, and field trip sorts by distance from your house, not ours.
Your rhythm
Most days are three good things, about 45 minutes. Toddler days also come in a 30-minute version for busy days, or the whole morning in one tap.
Friends, optional
Start with your kids. Add friends when you want them.
Every family starts at its own table. When you're ready for company, invite a few families onto your calendar: one hosting board, one group of kids who grow up together. A block, a church, a gym, three friends and their friends. Every friend you bring shrinks your bill.
Want people in your pod? Create a squad.
One link. Friends join through it, and you post announcements and run the hosting board if you want one. The curriculum and weekly releases are handled by us, whether it's one family or six.
Every friend you bring shrinks your bill
10% off for each family you invite who becomes a member, stacking all the way down to $20/month. Plus 10% off for the whole squad once 5+ families are in.
Same calendar, same rhythm, season after season
Each pod has its own start date and its own release schedule, and it never ends: 12-week seasons run back to back, every season closes with a Celebration Week, and the next starts the following Monday, tuned to where the kids are now.
The portal
Your family's home base, on every screen.
The week, the calendar, the reminders, the growth profile, the photos, and the pod, one login per grown-up: in the app on your phone and at podsquadschool.com on anything with a browser. Subscribe once and it lives in your phone's calendar too.
The whole family
Up to four grown-ups, each with their own phone login. Every kid on one account, each in their own stage and lane.
Your colors, your preferences
Pick a theme. Set home-vs-out. Turn email and app reminders on or off. The portal is yours.
Progress that means something
Little Wins per kid per week: small, observable, checkable. The record of what this season was.
Your family's little database
Notes and reminders, photos by week, what worked, what to bring Tuesday. All in one place, for every grown-up.
Community
A room for every Pod Squad parent, and a private one for your squad once you have one. Ideas, questions, wins. House rules and real moderation.
Ask Homie
Your parenting homie. Ask anything about the program ("what do I do with a bored two-year-old at 4 pm?") and get an answer grounded in your released weeks and your kids' setup.
Grounded in research
Pod Squad is guided play. Not worksheets, not free-for-all.
A grown-up sets the goal and the materials; the child keeps the choices; the adult talks with the child instead of quizzing. That middle path, guided play, matches or beats direct instruction for toddlers and preschoolers (Weisberg, Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 2013; Skene et al., 2022; the LEGO Foundation's review, Zosh et al., 2017). Every block in the program is written that way: what to set out, how to invite, what to say, what learning looks like, and one line on why it works, with the source named.
Guided play, not worksheets
A grown-up sets the goal and the materials; the child keeps the choices. That middle path beats direct instruction for toddlers and preschoolers.
Weisberg, Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 2013Skene et al., 2022Zosh et al., 2017
Talk with, not at
Back-and-forth turns predict language better than word counts. Every block gives you real lines: narration, open questions, the new words in a sentence.
Romeo et al., 2018Harvard Center on the Developing ChildHart & Risley, 1995; Sperry et al., 2019Gerber (RIE)
One book, three times
Repeating the same book teaches more new words than three different books, and dialogic prompts make the child the teller.
Short blocks, same rhythm
A two-year-old's focus is a few minutes long. Seven short blocks in the same order every day; stop while it's still fun.
Real jobs with real tools
Pouring, washing, sweeping, and finishing the whole job build focus, sequencing, and confidence.
Move to learn
Stop-and-go games, obstacle courses, and outdoor time train the brakes (executive function) and cover the three hours of daily movement toddlers need.
Letters through play
Drilling letters barely transfers to reading. We meet the letter of the week in the bin, on the floor, in their name, and on the walk, all week long, alongside songs and books.
Loose parts and process art
Open-ended materials invite invention; art with no picture to copy is choosing, mixing, and testing.
Hands climb a ladder
Tearing, then stickers, then tongs, then dough, then scissors by Season 2, one rung at a time.
Also in the backbone: the AAP's 2018 clinical report on the power of play, Harvard's Center on the Developing Child on serve-and-return, and the CDC's 2022 milestones (your Development snapshot uses those checklists per kid, with a plain reminder to bring questions to your pediatrician). The full reading list with links is in every block's “Why this works.”
Pod Squad is built by parents with these sources as the backbone. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by the researchers or organizations above.
Our story
It started with four families and a lot of boys who wouldn't sit still.
We wanted our toddlers to learn the way toddlers actually learn: with their hands, with their whole bodies, with friends, and with the real world. So we built a program around real jobs, real places, and real play, and an app to run it with the families we love. Then we noticed something: most of the parents asking for it weren't homeschooling at all. They just wanted to know what to do with their little one at 4 pm on a Tuesday. Pod Squad is that program, opened up: for the newborn weeks, the long toddler afternoons, the weekend, and a whole preschool morning at home, stage by stage, until the first day of kindergarten.
Play-based, always
The learning is baked into the play, not bolted on.
Real jobs, real tools
Kids want to do what grown-ups do. We let them, at their size, and finish the job every time.
Built for wigglers
Ten-minute circles. A movement version of everything. Heavy work every day.
Grows with you
A newborn, a toddler, and a preschooler on one account, and big brothers and sisters come along as helpers. You never start over.