For grown-ups
SpinTots is a thaumatrope, a toy from the 1820s: a disc with a picture on each side. Spin it fast and your eyes join the two into one. It is the first rung of moving pictures, and of how cartoons work.
On the screen your child spins four discs. Then print one sheet (plain paper, fine in black and white), and you cut out the discs. Tape a disc to a pencil and roll the pencil between your hands. Please do the cutting for children aged 3 to 5.
The bird and the cage is one of the oldest designs. The toy was sold in London in 1825. Charles Babbage later told a story about how it began: his friend the astronomer John Herschel asked how to see both sides of a coin at once, Babbage spun the coin on a table, and a few days later their friend William Fitton brought a card disc on two threads, with a bird on one side and an empty cage on the other (Babbage, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, 1864). Your child hears one line about it the first time the bird disc joins.
The beak cards are the first pop-up: one cut and two folds give a card a beak that opens. Your child can make it say anything.
There is no score and no timer, and nothing leaves this device. The paper is the point: the screen ends in your hands.
What it never does
- No accounts, no ads, no tracking — anything kept stays on this device.
- No streaks, timers to beat, points to chase or leaderboards.
- No chat, and nothing anyone types is sent anywhere.