Handwritten Journal
Kids' handwriting, their words
Free
iPad
Your child talks about their day. The words appear on a ruled page in big, friendly letters. They write over them with Apple Pencil, and when a line is finished, the guide underneath goes away. What is left is their own handwriting, exactly where they wrote it.
Do that for a day and you have a page. Do it for a year and you have a journal in their own hand.
HOW IT WORKS
1. Talk. Tap the microphone and say what happened. Up to five minutes at a time, and stopping part-way is completely fine.
2. Write. The whole thing is laid out as one long page, and they work down it at their own pace.
3. Watch it mark itself. Ink inside the letter turns green, ink outside turns red — while they write, never afterwards.
4. Keep it. The finished page joins the journal, newest first, with its date and the points it earned.
WHY IT WORKS
Handwriting practice is dull. Journalling is not. Most tracing apps hand a child a word — cat, dog, ball. This one asks what happened to them and hands that back to be written. The sentence is worth writing because it is theirs, and the book that piles up is a real reward, not a sticker.
WHAT'S INSIDE
• Say it out loud — speech becomes words to trace, all on this iPad, and a misheard word is fixed with a tap before it is written
• Marked letter by letter, so tracing half a letter scores like half a letter
• Stroke order taught, not just shape — a letter drawn backwards stops the page and teaches that one letter properly, then lets them carry on
• A practice sheet: every letter Aa to Zz and 0 to 9, each one drawing itself stroke by stroke, with a blue dot where to start and arrows to follow
• An eraser, an undo, and a scroll button, so the pencil never has to fight the page
• Crayons for doodling anywhere on the page — never marked, always kept
• A voice, if you want one, that says when it is their turn, names the letter to trace and cheers a finished line — it never reads the journal aloud
• Points for every letter and every whole word, stars, badges and a writing streak
• Every page kept exactly as they wrote it, and shown in their own hand in the journal
• Export a single page, or the whole book, as a PDF for a grandparent
• Several children, one iPad — a profile each, with an optional PIN
FOR GROWN-UPS
You choose the letterform and the size, and they are settings, not rewards. Nothing has to be earned to make the letters bigger. Five typefaces — Jua, Andika, Varela Round, Sniglet and Comic Neue — and five sizes, each previewed at its real size in its real face before you pick it. Andika is in the list because some children read it far more easily than anything else.
Progress is kept per setting, so if the score dips after you move to a smaller size, the chart shows you why instead of worrying you.
PRIVACY
Your child's journal stays on this iPad. Speech is recognised on the device and no audio is recorded or kept, and there is no account, no sign-in, no advertising, no analytics and no crash reporting. Nothing your child writes leaves unless a grown-up taps Share. We will never sell their data.
FREE
The basic app is always free, because we want children to thrive. Some additional features may be paid, because we will never sell your data.
WHAT IT IS NOT
Not a curriculum. Not a reading app. Not a game with levels to unlock. Not online.
Made for children roughly five to eight who can speak in sentences and are learning to form their letters. iPad with iOS 18 or later, held like a notebook. Designed for Apple Pencil.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Trace on paper, a cursive face, a real word editor, and an easier start.
• Trace on paper: lay a sheet of paper over the screen and the page locks bright white with the words in black, ready to trace with a real pencil. Tap the screen three times to come back.
• Change the words: the Abc tool turns the page into an editor — tap in and type, or tap Speak to say the words again right where the cursor is.
• Playwrite, a cursive face, joins the four print faces. The line from one letter into the next is never marked wrong.
• Dictation punctuates as your child speaks (iPadOS 26).
• And minor bug fixes and usability updates.
The developer, Matthew Vorst, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Matthew Vorst
- Size
- 22.9 MB
- Category
- Education
- Compatibility
Requires iPadOS 18.0 or later.
- iPad
Requires iPadOS 18.0 or later.
- iPad
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © Matthew Vorst 2026