How The Hedge works
It gets to know your family first
Most apps hand you a generic plan and hope it fits. The Hedge starts the other way around. It learns who your family is, builds learning around them, and keeps the record for you. A breath, not a battle.
The heart of it
From a conversation to a plan that adapts
The Kitchen Table
A calm, consultative chat to start, not a form to fill in. We ask about your children, how your days run, and what you want learning to feel like. From that conversation we build your Family Framework: a living picture of your family that The Hedge keeps to itself and learns from.
The Kitchen Table your Family Framework everything below
Once your Framework is in place, the whole product moves with it. Five plain things you can do, every one shaped by your family.
Today
A short, doable idea for today, shaped by your Framework, the season, and your local weather. One thing that fits, not a feed to wade through.
Plan
Look ahead your way. Set a gentle weekly rhythm or a fuller plan, and The Hedge fills it around your children and the days you actually have. It adapts when life moves.
Keep
A record that keeps itself. Every activity you mark done is logged, dated, and tagged to the NCCA strands, so your family's story gathers quietly in the background.
Belong
You are not doing this alone. Find other families near you, county groups, and the kind of company that makes home learning lighter.
Ask
A calm companion you can ask anything: an idea for a rainy afternoon, how an activity maps to the curriculum, what to try next. Ask it to build a full activity and it will, ready to do and tied to the curriculum. Honest help, grounded in your Framework. It suggests; you decide.
It learns your family, and your data stays yours. Everything is kept private to your account and stored in the EU. It is never sold, never used for advertising, and never used to train AI models.
Child-led on the surface, curriculum-deep underneath
Follow what they are curious about
The Hedge can prescribe a lovely day for you. But when your child lights up about something in the moment, you can follow that instead, and it still counts. This is the heart of how The Hedge keeps learning balanced and personal as your children grow.
Follow a spark
Mad about volcanoes at breakfast? Tell The Hedge in your own words, by text or voice, and it shapes one lovely, screen-free activity around it in seconds. Pitched for your child's exact age and tied honestly to Aistear and the primary curriculum, so following your child still counts.
A quietly rounded education
The Hedge keeps a light eye on the big areas of a rounded childhood. After a run on science and nature, it gently notices the arts have gone quiet and offers a spark that leans that way. No scores, never a red mark, just balance taking care of itself as your child grows.
Log a moment
Just did something lovely? Say what happened in your own words, by text or voice, and The Hedge reads it back, finds what it quietly covered across the curriculum, and keeps it in your portfolio as real evidence. No writing it up the night before.
Timetable or gentle rhythm, the same product
Adapts to your stance
Shaped around your children
Every suggestion is shaped by your children's ages, interests, recent activities, and what is coming up. The more you use The Hedge, the better the fit.
Live weather, real seasons
Pulls live forecasts from Open-Meteo for your county and quietly shifts ideas indoors when rain is coming. No manual adjusting.
Knows the Irish calendar
Term dates, public and bank holidays, mid-terms. The Hedge eases off in school holidays and leans in during term, without you asking.
Your AEARS evidence, kept as you go
For home-educating families
Evidence that keeps itself
As you log everyday learning, The Hedge builds a tidy, date-stamped record tagged to the NCCA strands. Nothing extra to write up the night before an assessment.
A clear record to bring
Export a formatted report of what your family has done, organised and readable, so the AEARS conversation starts from real evidence, not memory.
The strands, woven in
Activities carry their NCCA strand and learning-outcome links, so a normal week of doing quietly covers the ground you need to show.
Over 500 screen-free ideas, rooted in Ireland
A library worth keeping
Nature & the outdoors
A large share of the library lives outside, across all our seasons. Rock pooling in Connemara, bog walks in Roscommon, coastal foraging in Cork.
Science & discovery
Kitchen chemistry, garden experiments, cloud-watching, citizen science. Learning through curiosity, not worksheets.
Heritage & the Irish language
Folklore, festivals, traditional crafts, and Gaeilge woven through the week. Rooted in the place you live and the stories your children will carry.
Quiet, practical, and honest about what is ready
Wherever you are
Works in your browser
The Hedge runs in any modern browser, on phone, tablet, or laptop. Everything you need is there today, no install required.
iOS and Android apps
The Hedge in your pocket, with native apps for iPhone and Android, so a good idea is always to hand.
Shared with your family
Bring in your partner or co-parent. You both see the same plan, the same record, the same page.
Pull up a chair
Start at the Kitchen Table. Tell us about your family, and your first ideas are ready the same day. Free to begin, no card needed.