Bucky
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Screen time your kids earn.

Kids earn their videos with quick, fun lessons.

Download for Android See how it works
  • Earned, not given
  • Only videos you approve
  • Maths, clock, spelling
  • No autoplay, no tricks
  • No account needed
  • English and Polish
Bucky, a smiling pink and mint popcorn bucket, with three little popcorn kernels floating around him
Bucky's start screen asking

How it works

Learn a little, watch a little

Lessons earn Pals. Pals buy minutes of videos you approved.

Bucky is a popcorn bucket, and his popcorn is the currency. How full Bucky is shows how much watching is left, so even kids who don't read numbers yet get it.

Meet Bucky in 70 seconds
  1. Empty: time for a lesson
  2. A little: a few minutes
  3. Full: enough for an episode
  4. Overflowing: a bonus

  1. Solve a short lesson

    A few quick puzzles at the kid's own level. Wrong answers get an encouraging "Oops, try again!", never a buzzer.

  2. Earn Popcorn Pals

    Every right answer pops Pals into Bucky. Save them up, or put them in Bucky's bank and watch them grow.

  3. Watch approved videos

    Pick something from the family library. Each started minute costs a few Pals, and they hop out of Bucky one by one while the video plays.

When the Pals run out, the video pauses and a short lesson starts. Finish it, and the video picks up right where it stopped. Watching ends naturally, without a fight.

Lessons

Real practice, in bite-sized pieces

A parent picks which lessons each kid gets and at what level. A few minutes a day adds up to a habit.

  • Popcorn Adding

    Count popcorn, pick the answer. Levels from within 5 up to within 20, with counters for little ones who still like to count.

  • Popcorn Taking Away

    Count what is left when popcorn is taken away. Levels within 5, 10 and 20, never below zero, and counters cross out the popcorn that is gone.

  • Times Tables

    Timed tables within 100, and bigger ones up to 200 with the split method: three levels of help, and more Pals for doing it alone.

  • Popcorn Sharing

    Share popcorn fairly between Buckys. 8 levels, from dividing by 2, 5 and 10 to two-digit divisors up to 1000, with remainders (23 ÷ 4 = 5 r ?) and split help like the times tables.

  • Clock lesson, level 1: Bucky eating breakfast with a sun and 8 badge in the corner, above an analog clock for the kid to set

    What Time Is It?

    9 levels, from turning the short hand to fit a picture of Bucky's day, through halves, quarters and minutes, to digital clocks and day and night. The sky above the clock follows the time.

  • Polish Dictation

    Ten grade-4 dictations. Pick the right spelling for each gap: ó or u, rz or ż, ch or h.

  • Addition lesson: 3 + 2 with popcorn counters and three big answer buttons

    Adding with counters

  • Times tables lesson: 19 x 6 with a number pad and a

    Split help for big tables

  • Times tables lesson: 7 x 8 with a number pad

    Timed times tables

  • Polish dictation lesson: a short story with gaps and two spelling options above the current gap

    Polish dictation

For kids

A buddy who celebrates effort

Bucky reacts to everything a kid does, and he is never cross. Sad is only ever "a little hungry".

  • Happy to see you
  • Thinking with you
  • Oops, try again
  • A Pal was earned
  • Full, pick a video
  • Nap time
Bucky standing in front of a little bank building with bags of popcorn
Bucky's bank screen:

  • My own Bucky

    Brothers and sisters share one phone or tablet. Each kid picks their profile on "Who's playing?" and has their own colour, Pals, lessons and videos.

  • Bucky's bank

    Put Pals in the bank, and every night at midnight it adds a little more. Kids learn to save first and spend later, and see their savings grow.

  • The popcorn parade

    While a video plays, Pals pop out of Bucky and march off the screen, one per minute. A tiny clock shows when the next one goes.

  • Big buttons, few words

    Chunky rounded digits, big tap targets and pictures instead of menus, for kids who are still learning to read.

For parents

Set the rules once. Then relax.

Parent mode sits behind a PIN. Everything is per kid, so the six-year-old and the nine-year-old each get what fits them.

You approve every video

Paste a YouTube link to a single video, a playlist or a whole channel. Bucky lists what's in it, skips Shorts and live streams, and lets you filter by length and language. Choose which kids see each source.

Content warnings

Before anything is added, Bucky flags the kinds of videos many parents would rather skip, so you can hide whole kinds at once:

  • Shopping and hauls
  • Blind boxes and unboxing
  • Clickbait
  • Pranks
  • Scary
  • Sponsored
  • Add videos screen: a pasted channel link, four videos found, Shorts skipped, and content warnings for shopping hauls and blind boxes

    Add a channel, see warnings

  • Kid settings screen: name, colour, lessons with addition levels, and how many Pals are needed to start watching

    Settings for each kid

  • Parent mode home: two kids with their lessons, and buttons to add videos, review content warnings and change the PIN

    Parent mode

  • Parent PIN

    Settings are locked behind a 4-digit PIN that kids don't know.

  • See how it's going

    Per kid, today and the last 7 days: watching time, lessons done, accuracy, speed and the trickiest facts.

  • Breaks that stick

    A break with a task every 5 to 60 minutes of watching, and a closed cinema for a while afterwards.

  • Pals and prices

    Set how many Pals a kid needs before starting (10 by default) and how much a minute of each kind of video costs.

  • Both parents

    Invite the other parent with a short code. Several parents can manage one family.

  • Same Bucky everywhere

    Sign in with Google or Apple and the phone and the tablet share Pals, bank, videos and settings.

  • Share from YouTube

    On Android, tap Share on any YouTube video and send it straight to Bucky.

  • Right video, right kid

    Each playlist or channel is for every kid or only some of them, and new videos in it follow the same rule.

A cosy cinema at night with the lights off and Bucky sitting on the steps Bucky smiling next to a pause button

Breaks and a closed cinema

When it's break time, Bucky asks for a stretch and a quick task. After a break the cinema can stay closed for a while, with a friendly countdown instead of an argument. Kids can still do lessons and visit the bank while they wait.

Safety and privacy

Kids' data stays minimal

Bucky works fully on one device without any account. Nothing leaves the device then, apart from YouTube loading the videos you approved.

Stored, only with a family account

If you sign in to share a family across devices, this is kept in our Firebase project in the EU (Warsaw, Poland):

  • Your sign-in id and email, to know who owns the family
  • Kids' nicknames, colours and settings
  • Pals, bank balance and watching-time totals
  • The parent PIN, as a hash only
  • The videos you added and the kinds you hid

Never stored in the cloud

Some things simply never leave the device, or are never collected at all:

  • What a kid watched, and when
  • Answers in lessons
  • Photos, contacts or location
  • Kid accounts or kids' emails
  • Analytics or advertising trackers
  • Official YouTube player. Videos play in YouTube's own embedded player, as YouTube's terms require. Bucky doesn't block YouTube's ads and never charges for playback.
  • Stats stay home. The activity log behind the parent stats lives on the device only.
  • Only family members. Security rules let only members of a family read or change it. Signing out removes a device from syncing.

FAQ

Questions parents ask

Can my kid find other videos in Bucky?

No. Kids only see the videos, playlists and channels a parent added. There is no search, no recommendations and no autoplay into something new.

Do I need an account?

No. On one device Bucky works without any account. A family account (Google or Apple sign-in) is only needed if you want the same kids, Pals and videos on several devices.

Which devices does it run on?

Android phones and tablets, and iPhone and iPad. The iPhone and iPad version is in TestFlight for now.

What happens when the Pals run out in the middle of a video?

The video pauses and a short lesson starts. When it's done, the video continues from the same moment. You decide how many Pals a kid needs to start again.

Which ages is it for?

The lessons go from adding within 5, for kids who still count on their fingers, to dividing numbers up to 1000, reading the clock to the minute and grade-4 Polish spelling. You set the level for each kid.

Does Bucky remove YouTube ads?

No. Videos play in YouTube's official embedded player, as YouTube's terms require, so YouTube may still show its own ads. Bucky itself shows no ads and has no in-app purchases for kids.

Can siblings share one tablet?

Yes. Each kid has a profile with their own Pals, bank, lessons, settings and videos, and picks it on the start screen.

Which languages does Bucky speak?

English and Polish. Bucky follows the device language, and a parent can switch it in parent mode.

Want Bucky for your family?

Bucky is in early testing with a small group of families. Drop us a line and we'll let you know when there's room.

Get early access

No newsletter, no spam. Just one message when it's your turn.

Download for Android