A NEW Kids Corner App: Early Production Stages

By Ron VandenBurg, Sr. Producer of Kids Corner

Exciting news at Kids Corner: we’re currently developing a brand new mobile app we hope to make available to families in late 2024 or early 2025. This new app will give kids and families a fun and engaging place to build habits of personal daily devotions.

As part of ReFrame Ministries, Kids Corner is a website that helps kids find their place in God's story. We publish weekly kids’ devotions and parent blogs. We also produce audio Bible Stories, “Kids in Action” videos, and tons of DIY activities. And kids love our classic Liz & Friends audio adventures. You can find all these resources on our website, kidscorner.net; and you can listen to KC devotions, Bible Stories, and Liz & Friends wherever you get your podcasts.

We began the process of developing the new app by asking: How do we help our kids build lifelong habits of devotion and prayer? Starting any new habit can be hard. Ever try to start a new exercise program or learn a language? Most people have to overcome a degree of resistance. Of course, whenever we’re learning something new we need lots of time, practice, and commitment to our goal to succeed. For our kids, it really helps if it’s fun at the same time.

Since the successful launch of a new Kids Corner website in November 2021, we’ve seen that families strongly desire fun, yet substantive, faith-forming content for kids. Our team started researching ways to support families even more in that area. We determined that creating a custom KC mobile app would allow us to:

• Provide a digital space—a corner of God’s world—that kids can personalize and make their own as they engage in the spiritual disciplines.

• Equip parents and caregivers to reinforce what their children are learning and help them set healthy limits on their app usage throughout the week.

Kids Corner partnered with app developer Pageworks to craft an engaging, fun app that helps kids and families build the habit of daily devotions. Together, we’re creating a digital space that features the characters from our “Casey’s Day” comic strip, included in all of our current devotions.

How can using the KC app become a good habit? We set out to create a digital environment to which kids would want to come back to again and again. The team explored how to break down the popular Kids Corner devotions into “snackable” pieces for kids to try out—Bible reading, memory verse, reflections, and prayer—along with fun puzzles, games, and interactive activities. In the app, kids can explore these different activities in any order or follow the devotions step by step. The team also mapped out checklists and rewards to encourage healthy daily use. Working through their weekly devotion, kids will collect rewards that enable them to personalize and customize their own place that can grow along with them.

The good news is that God works in our kids' hearts and minds. Doing daily devotions using an app is another effective way to grow in knowledge, wisdom, and a relationship with God. We pray that this app will encourage daily Bible reading and prayer and help parents provide support along the way.

Remember Psalm 78:4, “We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.”

Watch for further updates as we develop the KC app. We’re excited to share this journey with you.