Blip for Parents
A voice-first learning companion that lives on your TV — like a Nintendo Switch for education. Kids say "Hey Blip" and a friendly hedgehog responds. No screen required for most activities.
How it works
A small PC sits behind your TV. Your child says "Hey Blip" — a wake word that activates locally, without sending anything to the cloud. Blip listens, transcribes on-device, sends only the text to Claude for a response, and speaks the answer back. The whole loop takes about two seconds.
"Hey Blip" → Local wake word → Local STT → LLM router → Local blip-edu (spelling, math, trivia) OR Claude API (stories, open questions) → Local TTS → Speaker + TV
Two modes
Audio-only mode — No screen needed. Richer verbal responses, spelling bees, storytelling, spoken math, and trivia. Works during car rides, homework time, or screen-free hours. Blip adapts its responses for the ear — longer descriptions, more narrative.
TV mode — Plug into any TV via HDMI. Blip's character appears on screen with animations. Visual coding blocks, illustrated stories, animated quiz UI, and a parent progress dashboard become available.
What Blip can do
- Spelling bees — Adaptive word lists that match your child's level. Blip gives the word, uses it in a sentence, and celebrates correct attempts. Runs on the local blip-edu model — no API cost, instant response.
- Math practice — Spoken problems that auto-adjust in difficulty. No worksheets, no pencils. Blip coaches through problems rather than just checking answers.
- Storytelling — Co-create stories with Blip. Your child guides the plot by voice; Blip shapes the narrative and asks "what happens next?"
- Trivia — Science, history, animals, space. Calibrated to be challenging without discouraging.
- Creative writing — Kids dictate stories and poems while Blip helps structure them.
- Speech practice — Structured articulation practice for kids working through R, S, L, and other common sounds. Includes phonological awareness exercises. Designed as a supplement to SLP sessions, not a replacement.
- Phonics & literacy — 8-level Science of Reading phonics curriculum. Decodable stories, blending practice, and sight word drills — sequenced the way research says reading actually develops. Coming in Phase 4.
- Intro to coding — Visual block coding on the TV. First steps toward programming concepts through voice interaction.
Privacy, in plain terms
Your child's voice never leaves the device. Wake word detection is local (openWakeWord, Apache 2.0 — no signup required). Speech-to-text runs locally on the mini PC's GPU — no internet required. The LLM router sends most structured activities (spelling, math, trivia, greetings) to the on-device blip-edu model. Only open-ended conversation and storytelling reach the Claude API — and that data is text only, never audio. No voice recordings are stored anywhere. No account required for children. Parental controls are PIN-protected.
What it costs
- Hardware: ~$300 (Beelink SER5 MAX mini PC ~$250, Anker PowerConf S330 speakerphone ~$50)
- Software: Open source (wake word, STT, TTS). Claude API costs roughly $1–3/month at normal household usage.
- Setup: Plug in, connect to WiFi, plug HDMI into TV. No technical knowledge required.
Blip is a personal project, not a commercial product. The hardware list and build details are in the build log. A packaged version may come later.
Who it's for
Ages 6–9. Works best for early elementary learners who are building reading, math, and language skills. The voice-first design means children who can't yet read can still use it fully. Kids who are in speech therapy benefit from the speech practice module for at-home repetition between sessions.