Parent & Educator Guide

Create a BAMJOY account with your email address or Google. If you use email, we’ll ask you to verify it before you log in. Once you’re in, you’ll land on your dashboard.

Add a child profile from the dashboard. The free plan includes one child profile; paid plans include more. Profiles keep each child’s stories and progress together.

Want to look around first? The free taster at bamjoy.com/try makes a short sample story with a ready-made hero — no account and no child’s name needed.

The age group is the most important setting on the story form. It controls vocabulary, sentence length, story length and the number of pictures. Choose by reading level rather than exact age.

Board books (0–3): short, rhythmic and soothing. Picture books (3–8): a warm story arc with pictures throughout. Early readers (5–8): simple sentences and longer stories to build confidence. Chapter books (7–9): eight short chapters, available on the Collection plan and above. Middle grade (8–13) is coming soon.

Choose a setting and a challenge from the lists, or tick “Add custom setting” or “Add custom challenge” to write your own. Richer custom ideas give richer stories.

Phonics mode is in the book viewer, after a story has been made. Find “Phonics level” at the bottom of the book and choose Phase 2, 3, 4 or 5 (or Off). Matching sounds are highlighted, and children can tap a highlighted sound to hear it.

The phases come from Letters and Sounds (DfE, 2007). Schools in England now use a DfE-validated phonics programme, and most teach sounds in a similar order. Phase 2 covers the first single-letter sounds (s, a, t, p, i, n…). Phase 3 adds the rest of the alphabet and digraphs such as ch, sh, ee and igh. Phase 4 adds no new sounds but practises words with consonants side by side, like frog and jump. Phase 5 introduces other ways to spell known sounds (ai, ay, a-e) and other ways to say known letters.

Ask your child’s teacher which phase they are working on and choose the same one, so reading at home matches the classroom.

A regular bedtime story is one of the best reading habits you can build. The routine below takes about 15–20 minutes. Stories take a little while to make, so you might create tomorrow’s story at teatime.

1. 🎨
   Choose together · 2 minLet your child pick the hero, the setting and the challenge. The anticipation is part of the fun.
2. ✨
   Make the story · 2 minYou handle the form while they make the choices, then press Generate together.
3. 🔤
   Read with phonics · 10 minTurn on phonics mode at their phase. Read aloud and pause for them to sound out the highlighted words.
4. 💬
   Talk about it · 3 minAsk one or two open questions: “What was the bravest thing the hero did?” Keep it light — it’s story time, not a test.

BAMJOY is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO registration ZB924199) and is designed around UK GDPR and the Children’s Code. We don’t use children’s data to train AI.

Content safety: a word filter checks everything typed into the story form before it is sent, and the AI runs with its strictest safety settings. If something unsuitable comes up, the story isn’t made. Stories are checked automatically rather than read by a person first, so we recommend reading together — especially with younger children.

For full details, read our Privacy Policy. If you have any concerns about content or data, email contact@bamjoy.com.