01
Future-Ready Skills
A curriculum built around AI fluency, computational thinking, and creative problem-solving — the literacies of the next decade, taught with the rigor of the last.
After-School & 1-on-1 EnrichmentCohort Fall 2026 enrolling now
In 10 weeks, your kid builds a real app — and you install it on your phone.
AI Playground is an after-school program at Northern Virginia elementary schools where kids learn to think with AI — not lean on it. Every project starts with pencil and paper, and every season ends at a family showcase. Offered in partnership with Baroody Camps.
Explore programsBackground-checked instructors · Max 12 per cohort · Northern Virginia
Why AI Playground
Programs designed for what comes next.
We started AI Playground because the gap between what schools can teach and what the next generation needs is widening. Our work sits in that gap, with the seriousness it deserves.
02
Hands-On Learning
Students build real projects from week one — prototypes, apps, stories, designs. We trade lectures for studios, and worksheets for craft.
03
Confidence & Collaboration
Small cohorts, thoughtful mentors, and group critiques cultivate the quiet confidence that makes a student step forward — not just sit forward.
The Program
One program. Three things every kid builds.
- UNIT 01
AI Foundations & Ethics
Grades 3–62 weeksStudents learn how AI actually works, where it fails, and what the ethical questions are — then form their own clear position on the issues adults are still arguing over.
- UNIT 02
Building Your First App
Grades 3–65 weeksStudents design, build, and ship a real working app — one that solves a problem they actually care about. Modern AI-assisted tools let them focus on the idea, not the syntax.
- UNIT 03
Building Your First Website
Grades 3–63 weeksStudents design and ship a real website from scratch — typography, layout, color, code — and learn what it feels like to put something they made out into the world.
Curricula refreshed each term to track the field.View all programs
Why this matters now
The next generation will build with AI, not just live with it.
Our approach treats AI literacy the way a strong school treats literacy itself — not as a single subject, but as a foundation that touches every discipline. The students who learn to think clearly with these tools today will lead the conversations about them tomorrow.
01
From consumer to creator.
Most children use AI before they understand it. We invert that — they shape tools before they're shaped by them.
02
Confidence with technology.
When a student has built something with their own hands, they stop being afraid of what's under the hood.
03
Creative problem solving.
AI fluency is downstream of clear thinking. We teach the second because the first follows it.
04
Future readiness.
The careers our students will pursue largely don't have names yet. The habits that prepare them for those careers do.
Curriculum architectureDisciplines orbit the student.
Fig. 01Safety & Professionalism
Operationally rigorous. Quietly, completely, dependably.
01 · Pillar
Paper before screens
Every project starts with a pencil sketch. Kids explain their idea out loud before any AI is opened. Thinking comes first — always.
02 · Pillar
Screen time is capped — and we publish the cap
K–3 students get at most 25 minutes of screen time per session; grades 4–6 at most 50. The rest is drawing, planning, and presenting.
03 · Pillar
Little kids never type into an AI
In K–3, the instructor drives on a projected screen. Older students use a locked-down classroom sandbox — the AI can only see that student's own project. No open internet, no chat history, no accounts in your child's name.
04 · Pillar
Background-checked instructors, every session
Every instructor passes a background check before setting foot in a classroom, and no session ever runs without one in the room.
05 · Pillar
Small cohorts, known by name
Cohorts cap at 12 students. Every child is known by name, by pace, and by interest — and parents get updates on what their kid built.
06 · Pillar
Seven rules, recited weekly
Kids memorize our seven-rule Safety Code and recite it at the start of every week — beginning with “Think first” and “Keep private things private.”
In partnership with
Baroody Campsafter-school enrichment across 25+ Northern Virginia schools
Insurance and compliance documentation available on request to PTO and school leadership.
Student work
What students actually build.
For Parents · Fall 2026
Join the Fall 2026 waitlist.
We're finalizing our fall school list now. Tell us where your child goes to school and we'll let you know the moment a cohort opens there — before registration goes public.
$229per 10-week season · about $23 a class
- 10 weekly sessions at your child's school
- A real app your family installs at the Week-10 showcase
- All devices provided — nothing to bring
- Weekly updates on what your kid built
10% sibling discount · Need-based scholarships — no student is ever turned away over cost.
PTO Inquiry
Bring AI Playground to your school.
Tell us about your school and what you're looking for. We'll reply within two business days with a tailored partnership outline, including curriculum samples, scheduling options, and any compliance documentation your administration needs.