In 2019 while watching my two little girls jump around their baby sister's alphabet play mat, I came up with an idea to turn their jumping into a simple educational game. They had to spell as many words as they could with the letters that were in front of them by jumping from one letter to another. This game proved to be a lot of fun and the girls would play it regularly and even on their own. 

  

Fast forward to Spring 2020, the pandemic arrived and with that home schooling became the new norm. In lockdown parents were now juggling the responsibilities of work, childcare, cooking, cleaning and teaching. I quickly discovered lots of online resources to keep the girls occupied by playing and learning simultaneously, but these were all screen-based. School was being held over video calls, homework was online and so was a lot of their favourite entertainment. It felt like their screen-time was really adding up and I knew it wasn’t good for them.  

 
I wanted them to be able to learn in a fun and creative way that was also screen-free. This is where my jumping spelling game evolved to become Rock Stepper. After chatting to my husband, we came up with the idea of creating our own product that children could use independently, using technology but in a safe and secure environment.  

 
We wanted to create a something that could complement the school curriculum at home and transform homework from a sedentary (and at times boring!) task into one that was active and fun. 

 

With a variety of games, we felt it was also important for parents and the child to be able to monitor and keep track of their progress. The data from games played would give insights into the child's strengths and struggles, and the competitive aspect would encourage them to hone their speed and skills. 

 

So we came up with....