Sherwood Kids is a subscription-based media platform that offers families an ad-free library of audiobooks, podcasts, eBooks, and read-along videos designed for kids ages 3–14.

Here are the facts you need to know about Sherwood:

#1 How does Sherwood Kids work?

A subscription is required to view any content, but there is a free 7-day trial. The platform is available through a desktop web browser and as an app for iOS or Android devices.

The cost is $9.99/month or $83.90/year (which comes with a free speaker).

Sherwood offers three ways to access their 5,000+ pieces of content: LISTEN, WATCH, and READ.

The LISTEN option offers audiobooks and podcasts suited for every age and interest imaginable.

The WATCH option offers visual audio books (including iBible), read-along novels, animated picture books, education videos on careers and cooking, and only a handful of movies. Five movies to be exact.

The READ option offers digital versions of books. Many options, fiction and non-fiction; early readers and young adult are available.

 

#2 The Issue of Screen-Based Streaming

It seems like an insurmountable contradiction: high-quality books…on a screen. Considering the availability of the Tonie Box and Yoto Players, it’s easy to question any screen-dependent service.

Not all screentime is equal, though. The most concerning kind is isolated use on an internet-connected handheld device. Sherwood could technically fall right into this hole.

However, while Sherwood is an online-based streaming service, it claims to be built with a screen-free approach.

First, books can be downloaded without limit for offline listening.

Second, the LISTEN and WATCH features can all be listened to/viewed without a phone, tablet, or computer by connecting to a Bluetooth speaker or via AirPlay or screen-cast to a smart television. They also offer a free Bluetooth speaker for families who purchase the YEARLY subscription.

Especially for the LISTEN options, the ability to download and play through Bluetooth is great for parents whose kids are reluctant to read on their own. Also, a great option while traveling.

The READ option does require the screen, and unfortunately, it is not the high-quality eBook offered on a Kindle. In fact, it is rather difficult to read anything other than graphic early readers on the screen. It can be done if necessary, but we’d always recommend a paper book or Kindle Paperwhite instead.

Perhaps what sets Sherwood Kids apart from other reading entertainment apps is the lack of algorithms, gamification, and rewards. The developers could add these features and likely increase their user engagement time, but they intentionally chose not to. So while it is a “streaming app for books,” it isn’t trying to overhaul literacy with technology. Instead, it’s using technology to introduce true, good, and beautiful stories to those who’ve forgotten that they exist.

#3 The Value of Low-Stimulation

There is little denying that short-form video has shortened the attention spans of children and adults alike. Modern media for kids (think Coco Melon and Sponge Bob) overloads a child’s brain with rapid scene changes, flashy visuals, and with unnatural and excessive noise.

Sherwood claims to intentionally choose content that slows things down to help kids think, imagine, and engage with stories in a meaningful way.

Considering the movie options, there is simply no comparison between Where the Red Fern Grows and a SpongeBob episode — the two stand on opposite poles. Thus, for kids who have grown accustomed to fast-paced, high-stimulation screen time, transitioning to Sherwood content might be challenging but totally worth it.

Audio books are a great source of low-stimulation entertainment. When paired with their physical counterparts, they are an excellent way to help reluctant or self-paced young readers engage with books. This shouldn’t replace parents reading aloud to children, but it’s a far better entertainer than YouTube.

The platform interface is equally low-stimulation. Straightforward categories on a plain white background make for a pleasant user experience.

#4 What Type of Content is Available?

The website offers only broad explanations of its content.

They also offer the following ways that Sherwood isn’t just less harmful but genuinely good for kids:

• Made to improve focus, not destroy it (with low-stimulation content).
• Characters that model timeless values.
• Non-addictive content.
• Makes reading entertaining again.

 

Kids’ content can sometimes be packaged with hidden agendas of progressive ideology. Sherwood speaks of timeless values and morals…and with content options such as iBible, Pilgrim’s Progress, The Torchlighters, Davey & Goliath, and others, parents are left wondering whether this is a Christian app.

It is not an overt proclamation on their website, but research into its founder revealed that Sherwood Kids is indeed promoting Judeo-Christian beliefs. In one news article, Sherwood is described as a platform without any hidden political or ideological messaging. The founder, Jess Hall, explained that the criteria for inclusion into Sherwood’s library are: if it’s true, good, beautiful, and a reflection of God’s will.

Jess Hall’s LinkedIn profile lists a Certificate in Theological Studies from the University of Oxford and a Certificate of Apologetics from RZIM.

Therefore, while it is not advertised, the content on Sherwood undeniably reflects the biblical worldview and mirrors God’s moral character.

 

 

#5 Rating, Review, & Biblical Perspective

App Store: 9+
Google Play: E (for everyone)
Sherwood Kids: Designed for ages 3-14
Brave Parenting: LISTEN & WATCH features for Age 3+ and in moderation

Brave Parenting is passionate about literacy and deeply troubled by declining reading comprehension rates as books are replaced by iPads and smartphones. Our first inclination was to reject Sherwood because it requires children to spend more time in front of a screen. Although the content would be better, we never want to recommend anything that grants a child isolated screen time with a handheld device.

Upon researching the platform, we found that the content available on Sherwood truly is a collection of what is true, good, and beautiful in the world.

We do not recommend reading books on a device not specifically designed for reading. If eBooks are what you seek, it is better to buy a Kindle Paperwhite. Because the LISTEN & WATCH features can be cast to a Bluetooth speaker or a smart television, this removes the risk of isolated screen time on a handheld device. Nevertheless, depending on the child’s age, physical books are the best option for regular reading.

And frankly, we wouldn’t limit its use to age 14.  Parents can even learn about missionaries, saints, and world-changers while brushing up on some history with their audiobooks.

Our best use cases for Sherwood are:

• Downloaded audiobooks that can be cast to a Bluetooth speaker for a child to listen to during (for example) afternoon quiet time or at bedtime. Even better if they have the physical book they can read along too.
• Downloaded audiobooks on a non-internet-connected device with NO OTHER APPS available and parental controls activated to restrict any mischievous attempts to add apps for listening while traveling on long road trips, plane flights, and the like.
• Visual books and shows that are airplayed or screen-casted to a television in a public space of the home and viewed communally.
• As a digital library/encyclopedia for research. The vast amount of nonfiction: history, plants, animals, career, heroes of the faith, etc, can be used for educational purposes when used on a family computer in a public space of the home.

Biblical Perspective

In God’s creational order, children are born to a mother and a father. Parents are necessary not only to create a child, but to raise them as well.

God calls parents to impress upon their children’s hearts how to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Deuteronomy 6:7 describes how this is done on an all-day, every-day basis: “talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Talking to your young children and training them all day, every day was a standard practice for thousands of years. Recently, however, with the advent of internet-connected handheld personal screens, children are listening, watching, scrolling, and playing on screens rather than listening, learning, observing, and obeying their parents.

Satan’s Lies

This tragic turn, the abdication of parental authority to a screen, is the classic work of the enemy, the father of lies (John 8:44). Satan has woven his lies into the culture’s narrative around technology and children, mixing truth with error, just as he did when tempting Jesus in Matthew 4.

Although Scripture teaches us that he masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), we fail to recognize him when his “light” shows up as promises of convenience, comfort, and ease. Parents, unfortunately, take the bait and come to believe that the screen can parent, entertain, teach, and discipline better than they can.

Discipleship Matters

The greatest threat to a child’s salvation isn’t specifically video games, short-form videos, or reading apps. The greatest threat is the loss of discipleship at critical ages. Children lose the essential training towards righteousness, wisdom, and godly character. They lose discipline, moral framework, stewardship, and service to others.

Make no mistake, the internet-connected device will disciple your child into an unbiblical worldview if you let it. The most important thing a parent can do is to disciple: to talk about loving the Lord and obeying His commands all day long, day after day (Deut 6:6-7). It’s not convenient, comfortable, or easy, but it is faith in action (James 1:22).

Content Matters, Parents Matter More

If screen time is inevitably necessary, part of your wise discipleship and training means choosing the best content possible. There is a fine line between education and entertainment in our modern times. What tips the scale one way or the other is a parent’s presence and engagement.  If the parent is absent and the child is isolated behind a screen, regardless of the content, it will likely only be entertainment for the child.

The bottom line is that if you want screen time to be positive, you must take an active role in it.

Reading Matters

Parents must never believe Satan’s lie that technological advancements negate the need for learning to read and read well.

God gave us His Word in written form, intended to be read. More than just words on a page, Scripture is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12), and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).

God’s word doesn’t produce wisdom by its sheer existence; it produces wisdom when it is read and obeyed.

Regardless of how they learn, children must learn to read for no other reason than this is how God speaks to us in the present age.