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Their First

For grown-ups ·

Questions about Their First Art

Their First Art is a free picture app for children about 2–5 years old. Three walls, Art, Cities and Nature, hang every picture under torn paper, and each tap turns one piece into paint. Here is what your child sees and hears, and what stays on your device.

The pictures

Are the paintings on the Art wall real?

Yes. The Art wall holds one hundred real works, every one in the public domain, hung oldest first by the date it was made: from handprints on a cave wall in Argentina, about nine thousand years ago, to Mondrian’s Red, Blue and Yellow from 1930. In the app, Settings → Pictures and credits lists each one with its maker, date and museum exactly as our catalog records them, and the photographer where the work is a wall or a mosaic.

Who made the city and nature pictures?

The Cities wall (fifty cities) and the Nature wall (fifty natural wonders) hold original watercolor illustrations of real places, made for the app. They hang on their own walls, apart from the historical works, and the credits page says so.

How were the paintings chosen?

Each one had to pass one test: a four-year-old can see what it is from across the room, and it holds at least one thing they can name, like a hare, a wave or a cow. They are flat works from every part of the world: paintings, drawings, prints, book pages, scrolls, murals, mosaics, tiles, rock and bark paintings, and woven pictures. There are no statues or carvings.

What does my child actually do?

Tap. Each tap turns one piece of paper into paint, with a soft wooden knock. A tap on paint that is already uncovered turns the nearest paper piece, so every tap counts, and a quick tap during a turn simply waits for it. There are no questions, scores, timers, stars or wrong answers; the finished painting is the reward.

What does the voice say?

Only the name, once, when the last piece turns. A painting is named with its maker, by the name the world knows them by: “The Great Wave. Hokusai made it.” or “Peter Rabbit. Beatrix Potter made it.” When no one knows the painter’s name, it says where they lived: “The Geese. People in Egypt made it.” A city or wonder is named with its country: “Victoria Falls. Zambia and Zimbabwe.” The voice is English only, and there is no music.

Can my child see a picture again?

Yes. After the name, a tap goes on to the next picture on the same wall, and after the last one the wall starts over. To put the paper back on a finished picture, tap the round Replay arrow or hold a finger on the painting for two and a half seconds. Finished pictures hang painted on the wall; half-uncovered ones keep their paint for next time.

Practical questions

Is everything free?

Yes. All two hundred pictures are open from the first tap. There are no purchases, subscriptions, ads or accounts. In the browser, a small “Leave a tip” button beside the title opens an optional tip page for grown-ups; every picture stays free, and the iPhone, iPad and Android apps will not offer tips.

What is in Settings?

Tap Settings on the wall. You will find a Sounds switch for the wooden tap, a Voice switch, Pictures and credits, the privacy policy, and a button to cover every picture again. That last one cannot be fired by a child’s stray taps: the first tap arms it, and only a two-and-a-half-second hold clears all progress.

What does the app remember?

Which pieces of each picture have been uncovered, and the two sound switches. In the browser, they stay in that browser’s storage on this device. There is no account or cloud copy, so progress does not move to another device, and clearing the site’s data in your browser starts every picture fresh.

Does it work offline?

In the browser it needs a connection to open. Pictures and voices your child has already played are saved, so they come back quickly, but starting the browser version offline is not guaranteed. The iPhone, iPad and Android apps, coming soon, carry every picture and voice inside and play fully offline.

Does the app collect anything about my child?

No. There are no analytics, tracking, advertising identifiers or crash reports, and the app never uses the camera, microphone, photos or location. Nothing your child does leaves the device. The Art privacy policy has the details.

Where can I get help?

Email support@theirfirstwords.org or visit support. Tell us your device and browser and what happened; please leave out your child’s personal information.