Kinder Prep Curriculum

A 6-month personalized learning project to prepare a gifted 4-year-old for admission to a top-tier private school by teaching foundational reading and math skills.

Goal

By the end of 6 months, the child should be able to:

Reading

• Recognize all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters
• Understand letter-sound relationships (phonics)
• Blend sounds to decode simple CVC words (cat, dog, sun)
• Read simple sight words (Dolch Pre-K and Kindergarten lists)
• Read short sentences and simple books independently
• Answer basic comprehension questions about what was read

Math

• Count reliably to 20 (and beyond)
• Recognize and write numerals 0–10
• Understand one-to-one correspondence
• Perform simple addition and subtraction within 10
• Recognize basic shapes and patterns
• Understand basic measurement concepts (longer/shorter, heavier/lighter)

Structure

/curriculum     - Week-by-week lesson plans
/apps           - Interactive learning tools and games
/assessments    - Progress tracking and milestone checks
/resources      - Reference materials, printables, and admission standards

Timeline

Month	Reading Focus	Math Focus
1	Letter recognition & sounds	Counting 1–10, number recognition
2	Phonics blending, CVC words	Numbers 11–20, patterns
3	Sight words (Pre-K list)	Addition within 5
4	Short sentence reading	Subtraction within 5
5	Sight words (K list), fluency	Addition & subtraction within 10
6	Simple book reading, comprehension	Shapes, measurement, review

Target School

A top-tier private school with rigorous kindergarten admission that assesses school readiness including pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills.

See resources/admission-standards.md for a detailed breakdown of what the assessment evaluates.

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Story Generator Tools

Two versions of the personalized story generator exist: a macOS desktop app and an Android tablet app. Both call the Gemini API to produce decodable books tailored to the child's phonics level and favorite characters, then generate an illustration for each page.

You will need a Gemini API key from aistudio.google.com. The free tier is sufficient for normal use.

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Python Desktop App (macOS)

Location: tools/story_generator.py

Quick start:

./scripts/setup-python.sh

This checks your Python version, creates a tools/.venv virtual environment, installs all dependencies, writes a tools/run.sh launcher, and opens the app. Re-run any time to repair or upgrade the environment. Pass --no-launch to skip auto-opening the app.

After the first run, launch with:

./tools/run.sh

Requirements

• macOS (uses Tkinter, which ships with the system Python on macOS 12+)
• Python 3.10 or later
• The three Python packages listed in tools/requirements.txt

Setup

pip3 install -r tools/requirements.txt

Note: If pip3 install keyring fails on a fresh macOS install, run pip3 install --user -r tools/requirements.txt or use a virtual environment.

Running

python3 tools/story_generator.py

A Tkinter window opens with four sections:

Section	What to fill in
Profile	Child's name, favorite characters, phonics level
Story Spec	Title, theme, target sight words, page count (4–8)
API Key	Paste your Gemini key; tick Remember key (Keychain) to store it in the macOS Keychain so you only enter it once
Image Style Guide	Choose a template (Watercolor / Cartoon / Colored Pencil / Pixel Art) or write your own; save custom templates by name

Workflow:

1. Fill in all sections and click Generate Text — the story appears in the preview pane.
2. Review each page; click Regenerate on any page you want rewritten.
3. Click Generate Images — one illustration per page is created (this calls the image API and takes ~10–30 s per page).
4. Click Save to Repo — writes apps/social-stories/stories/<slug>/story.json and page-NN.png into the repo. Commit and push as normal.

API key storage

The key is stored in the macOS Keychain under service kinder-prep, account gemini-api-key. To remove it:

python3 -c "import keyring; keyring.delete_password('kinder-prep', 'gemini-api-key')"

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Flutter App (iPad · Android tablet)

Location: apps-native/story_generator_flutter/

Quick start:

./scripts/setup-flutter.sh

The script checks Flutter, detects whether Xcode (iPad) or Android SDK is available, adds iOS platform files on first run if Xcode is found, fetches packages, and interactively offers to run or build for your target device.

Requirements

• Flutter SDK ≥ 3.22.0
• iPad (recommended): Mac with Xcode 15+ — install from the Mac App Store
• Android tablet: Android Studio with SDK Platform 35 and NDK installed

Check your setup:

flutter doctor

Running on iPad (recommended)

1. Connect iPad to your Mac via USB
2. Unlock iPad and tap Trust when prompted
3. Run the setup script and choose i, or:

cd apps-native/story_generator_flutter
flutter run

On first run the script adds the ios/ platform files automatically (flutter create --platforms ios .). Flutter selects the connected iPad and hot-reloads on save.

First-time signing prompt: Xcode may ask you to add your Apple ID under Xcode → Settings → Accounts and select a Development Team in ios/Runner.xcodeproj. Free Apple IDs work for personal sideloading (7-day cert, re-run flutter run to renew).

Running on Android tablet

Plug in your Android tablet with USB debugging enabled:

flutter run

If you see an Android SDK version error, open Android Studio → SDK Manager and install:

• SDK Platform 35 (or whatever Flutter's flutter doctor requests)
• NDK (latest stable)

Building a release APK (Android sideloading)

flutter build apk --release
# APK: build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-release.apk

Transfer via USB, Google Drive, or email and tap to install. Enable Install unknown apps in Android Settings if prompted.

In-app workflow

1. Profile — child's name, favorite character, phonics level → Save Profile
2. Story Spec — theme, sight words, page count (4–8)
3. API Key — paste your Gemini key; toggle Remember key to store it securely (Keychain on iOS, Keystore on Android)
4. Image Style Guide — pick a template or write your own; save custom templates by name
5. Generate Story → review text, tap any page to edit
6. Generate Images → progress bar fills as each page is illustrated
7. Export Story → shares story.json + PNGs via the system share sheet

API key storage

The key is stored in the device's secure enclave via flutter_secure_storage — Keychain on iOS, encrypted SharedPreferences on Android. It is never written to disk in plaintext. Toggle Remember key off to delete it.