The gem ledger
Kids on Sprout earn gems, stare at their balance, and make trade-offs. That stare is the point.
Every kid on Sprout has a gem balance, and every gem has a history. Earned for finishing the morning list. Earned for a reading streak. Spent on thirty minutes of Roblox. Saved, three days running, toward the art set.
Earning
Sprout pays gems when work completes, and only then. A photo check that catches a missing water bottle pays nothing until the water bottle shows up. A ten-minute math drill pays out when the last question is answered. Kids figure out the difference in about a day, and it changes how they treat the list.
Parents set the values. Reading might be worth more than tidying in your house and less in your neighbor's. Sprout applies your prices, not ours.
Spending
The spending side is where the learning lives. Screen time has a gem price. Rewards you define, from an art set to a Saturday sleepover, have gem prices. When Liam wants Roblox now but is 63 gems from the art set, Sprout shows him both numbers and lets him choose. He plays the thirty minutes. Sprout deducts the gems and shows him the new math: three more days.
He stares at that screen for a while. Nobody lectures him. The ledger does the teaching.
Proposing
Kids can also work the other direction. Maya finds something she wants, proposes it as a reward, and Sprout routes the proposal to you with a suggested price. You approve it, change the price, or decline it. Once it's on her board, tomorrow's reading has a reason attached to it that you didn't have to invent.
The village chips in
Gem deposits can come from outside the house. Grandma Ruth puts 20 gems toward the art set from Boca, Sprout deposits them and tells Liam who sent them, and he calls her without being asked. You find out afterward. The economy runs without you operating it, which is the entire idea.
If you want to see the ledger working across a full family week, read A week with a parent agent, or join the alpha and set your first prices.