Sapling Hollow Studios

Calm, creative learning
apps for kids.

Drawing, rhythm, and geometry for ages 3 and up.

No ads. No subscriptions. Not overstimulating.

Explore our apps

Three apps, ready to explore

Calm, creative play for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Every app is free to start, with no ads or subscriptions.

Sapling Draw app icon

Sapling Draw

Two sparkling unicorn stamps in a colorful mountain meadow made in Sapling Draw

A calm, creative drawing app with playful brushes and stamps that come alive. Simple enough for age 3 and fun for grown-ups too.

Age 3 and up · Free to start
7 playful brushes · Optional one-time Creative Collection
Available now
Sapling Beats app icon

Sapling Beats

Six large illustrated drum pads in Sapling Beats

A friendly drum sequencer, simple enough for a three-year-old. Build a beat step by step, hear it loop, and start to feel how rhythm works.

Age 3 and up · Free to start
10 free sound kits · Build beats in 4, 8, or 16 steps
Available now
Sapling Tangram app icon

Sapling Tangram

A colorful fish built from geometric pieces in Sapling Tangram Create mode

A calm shape sandbox, simple enough to start at age 3 and open-ended enough to grow with older kids. Snap colorful blocks together to build animals, patterns, and whole scenes while discovering how shapes fit.

Age 3 and up · Free to start
6 geometric shapes · Create, Puzzle, Mirror, and Repeat
Available now

Growing next

A few more calm, playful learning tools are taking root.

Sapling Marbles: A Space Adventure app icon

Sapling Marbles: A Space Adventure

Solve one playful marble puzzle at each stop, collect rocket parts along the way, and work toward a big launch into space.

Coming soon
Sapling Learn Music By Ear app icon

Sapling Learn Music By Ear

A hearing-first musical journey through 100 forest levels. Kids begin by echoing melodies and intervals, then build toward reading notes on the staff, recognizing chords, and learning songs.

Coming soon

Designed for growing children

  • Made by two professors who are also parents.
  • No ads, ever.
  • No subscriptions. Free apps or simple one-time purchases.
  • No accounts and no personal data collected from children.
  • Works offline. Nothing to sign into.

Sapling Hollow Studios makes calm, creative apps for curious kids. They're made to work for ages 3 and up, and fun at any age. The creators are a physics professor and a math professor (and parents) who got tired of children's apps that are riddled with ads and slot-machine mechanics, so we built the opposite: open-ended tools for drawing, music, building, and play. We promise no ads, no accounts, no data collection, and no in-app pressure.

Got an idea or some feedback?

Tell us what you'd love to see, or what's not working.

This opens your email app with the message ready to send to jon@saplinghollow.com. Nothing is collected on this site.