AI in homeschooling
AI writes and screens; ordinary code decides. Here is where Peabody uses it, where it doesn't, and what each child is allowed to cost.
Peabody uses AI to write stories at a child's reading level, screen ideas and stories for safety, explain a tapped word and build games a child describes. It never decides a child's level, the next question or what grown-ups are told about progress, according to Peabody's AI policy, written from the code. Each child has a default limit of $1.00 of AI a month.
Checked October 30, 2026.
Does Peabody Homeschool use AI?
The tools on this site do not. The attendance record, hours log, portfolio, transcript, planner and letter maker are ordinary code in your browser, and what you type stays on your device; it isn't sent to us. The guides are written by Peabody's editors with help from AI and checked by people against the sources before they go up.
The AI is on the kids' site, peabody.kids, where children read, write stories and play learning games.
What does Peabody's AI do for a child?
- Writes stories at the child's measured reading level.
- Screens a child's ideas before anything is written, and screens every story before a child sees it, with a second opinion from a stronger model when unsure.
- Writes a kid-dictionary entry for a word a signed-in child taps.
- Builds the game a child describes in Peabody Studio.
- Writes one answer card, from a short open-source passage, when Peabody has no answer to a question.
- Replies in a short typed chat, Talk with Peabody, for 3rd grade and up in a family account, checked twice before a child sees a word.
What does it never do?
- Decide a child's reading or math level, pick the next question, or decide when a fact comes back for review. Ordinary code does that.
- Grade a child, or compare one child with another.
- Hold an open-ended conversation: the typed chat stops after 14 messages and has a small daily share.
- Hear a child: no AI hears any audio.
- Reply to a child in the Ask Peabody box, or see the words as the child typed them there.
How much AI can one child use?
Every AI call says which child it is for, and the cost is reserved before the call and settled after. If the budget ledger cannot be read, the call is refused. The defaults:
| Limit | Default |
|---|---|
| One child, a month | $1.00 |
| One child, a day | $0.15 |
| One household, a day | $0.60 |
| AI calls by one child in a day, other than safety screens | 40 |
| Typed Talk for one child, a month (inside the $1) | $0.40 |
| All of Peabody, a day | $5.00 |
Can I turn the AI off for one child?
Yes. "Peabody's AI" is a switch for each child in the grown-ups' Limits. With it off, no AI call is made for that child except the safety screens on stories they read. The library, games, math, typing and reading keep working; Make a story points to the library's ready stories instead. A grown-up can also turn typed Talk off on its own.
How do we use AI well in a homeschool?
- Use it for practice and reading, not for judging. Your own records and your child's work show progress better than any app's score.
- Tell children to keep last names, schools and addresses out of the ideas box. The policy page says ideas are sent as typed once contact details are refused.
- Read what your child made. A family child's ideas are kept with their story so a grown-up can see them.
- Count it honestly. Twenty minutes reading a story at their level is reading; log it like any other lesson.
Log the time
If your state counts hours, time Peabody sessions like any other lesson in the Tap Clock hours log under reading or math, and add finished books to the reading log. The full rules are in Peabody's AI policy.
Sources
- Peabody: How Peabody uses AI with children (written from the code, lib/ai/policy.ts) (checked October 30, 2026)
- Peabody Homeschool: Privacy (checked October 30, 2026)