The story
My name is Thomas Sobstyl. I’m the parent of a third grader in France and an independent developer. Kamelo started at home, as a little spelling game for the color-coded word lists my child’s class brings home.
The apps out there mostly offered general curricula, very well made but unrelated to that night’s list, or apps that give the answer. I wanted something else: start from the planner, practice exactly what the teacher assigned, in about ten minutes, with a character children look forward to seeing, and without the app doing the work for them.
Kamelo’s principles
- The teacher’s list, tonight. Start from the homework your child actually has. Everything else comes second.
- Practice, never ready-made answers. Nothing in Kamelo solves homework.
- Ten calm minutes. No red, no timer by default, no lives, no leaderboards, nothing to lose. A mistake comes back later, as an “almost.”
- Adults hold the AI, the money and the data. The parent takes the photo, checks it, pays and gives consent. The child gets checked exercises, a character whose lines are all written in advance, and nothing to buy.
- Alive, finished and honest. Every screen is polished, an exercise ships later rather than rough, and this site promises nothing the app doesn’t do.
How Kamelo is made
Kamelo is a native app for iPhone, iPad and Android, in French, British English and American English. Data is hosted in Paris. Reading the photos is done by Claude, Anthropic’s AI, with your consent. The chameleon is a digital puppet animated in real time by the same engine in both apps, and on this site.
Write to us
A question, a problem, an idea for an exercise? Write to thomas.sobstyl@me.com. I read every message and answer it myself, in English or French.