Turning our fridge chart into a Yoto app

We have a system on our fridge. Ten little boxes drawn on a scrap of paper, and every time our son finishes a chore he proudly sticks a sticker in one, working his way towards a big "Surprise!" at the end. It works embarrassingly well. Kids love a progress bar, even a paper one.

So when Yoto, the kids' audio player, announced a developer challenge, I knew exactly what I wanted to build. I'd turn the fridge chart into an app, and give the "Surprise!" a voice.

Chores + Rewards is the plan. Parents set up chores with token values, mark them done as they happen, and the tokens add up towards a reward the family has chosen together. The twist is the payoff. When a child hits their goal, the app generates a personalised audio message and plays it straight on their Yoto player. The chart doesn't just fill up, it celebrates out loud, in a way a four-year-old can hear from across the room.

There are really two bets here. The first is about the product: that a kid will stick with chores for a reward they can hear, not just see. I already have a test subject at home who says yes. The second bet is about me. This needs a proper back-end, an OAuth integration with Yoto's API, dynamically generated audio, and encryption done right because it involves children. That's more full-stack than I'd normally take on alone, and normally I'd bring in a back-end partner. This time I want to find out if, with an AI assistant in my corner, I can deliver the whole thing myself.

I'm building it in my usual front-end home base, Phoenix LiveView, and working the rest out as I go. The deadline is the end of September. We'll see if it holds together, and whether any families beyond my own actually use it.

If your kid will do their chores for a talking sticker chart, we might be onto something. Either way, I'm going to learn a lot.