Spelling that Finally Sticks

The unlock to confident readers and writers
is memory science that works like magic.

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How it works

Wyla looks like a game. Underneath, it’s the most thoughtfully designed spelling tool ever built.

Every time your child plays, Wyla is learning too. It remembers every word they’ve practiced and brings it back at exactly the right time to help it stick. The difficulty adapts in real time, meeting your child where they are and gently pushing them forward. Your child just feels like they’re playing. Their brain is doing the rest.

English spelling is strange! Why does ‘hint’ rhyme with ‘mint’, but not ‘pint’? How does ‘cough’ rhyme with ‘off’, but ‘through’ rhyme with ‘new’? People say “I before E except after C” but then what about ‘weird science’?

Simple rules aren’t enough. Wyla helps kids learn patterns in spelling (both phonological and etymological), while also learning the exceptions. It’s built on the same linguistic principles used by the best specialist tutors, supercharged with memory science to make things stick. Your child isn’t just memorizing words. They’re learning how English works.

Wyla is dense with learning, not filler. There are no endless screens to tap through, no fluff between your child and the good stuff. Once they’re set up, it’s a single tap to start. 15–20 minutes a day is all it takes — easy to drop into a routine you’ve already established, or to build a new simple one around. And because they’ll actually want to play, those minutes happen without a fight.

Most learning apps are mostly filler. Kids spend their time on everything but actual learning — and what little there is comes wrapped in anxiety-inducing streaks, lost points, and other punitive tricks for keeping kids hooked.

Wyla runs on none of that, because it doesn’t have to. When learning is this effective and this quick, kids can feel themselves getting better — and that feeling becomes its own reward. Discovering creatures in its magical world adds just enough intrigue to draw kids in, while the deep satisfaction of learning keeps them coming back.

To your child, it simply feels like play. Underneath, every minute goes to the honest work of learning — and the rest of the day stays free for the unhurried work of childhood.

Wyla app: the correct spelling of ‘separated’ shown after an attempt Wyla app: ‘materials’ spelled out in rainbow letters over a ‘Brilliant!’ celebration Wyla app: matching each sentence to the correct spelling of ‘piece’ or ‘peace’ Wyla app: ‘its’ versus ‘it’s’ explained side by side Wyla app: a check-in asking ‘How is this feeling?’ with too easy, good, and too hard choices Wyla app: today’s quest complete, with the choice to keep playing or stop for the day
Two kids relaxing on a couch, playing Wyla together on a laptop

A game your kids actually want to play

Warning: If your kids start playing Wyla, they may never want to stop.

Mine beg to play it, and then I have to drag them away from it when it’s time to stop. The magical creatures are so fun for them, but not only that they’re actually enjoying the spelling too!

—CHRISTINE, Mom to Isaiah and Jujube

Wyla was born out of a deep need for my own daughter. She’s a prolific storyteller, but her imagination outran her skill set when it came to spelling, which slowed her down. She struggled no matter how many tutors we worked with or literacy programs we tried. Everything was either ineffective or boring or both. Finally, we decided to make our own tool, designing the fantastical world right alongside her. That’s how we built a magical game kids actually ask to play: by creating the magical, immersive world of Wyla with them, not for them. We take kids and their imaginative capacities seriously.

Freeing their minds and their time for creativity

When spelling becomes automatic, something opens up. The mental energy kids once spent on decoding gets freed up for what matters most: comprehension, delight, and creative expression.

We didn’t build Wyla because spelling is the most important thing your child will ever do. We built it so they could stop being weighed down by it — and spend their energy writing prolific stories, getting lost in fantastical novels, and bringing their own ideas to life. And, once literacy clicks, schooling, homework, and life become a lot more joyful — for everyone.

Who Wyla is for

We built Wyla for every kid — and the grown-ups in their corner.

For the kids who need it

The Reluctant Writer

Your child has ideas, but spelling stops them from getting those ideas on paper. When spelling becomes automatic, writing becomes possible — and kids who once avoided the page start filling it.

The Struggling Reader

Spelling and reading share the same underlying skill. Wyla is built to grow an automatic word bank — not just to help spelling, but so reading gets faster, less effortful, more joyful. The magic of a good book becomes accessible.

The Kid Who’s Hungry for More

Your child devours books well beyond their years and has ideas to match. Maybe spelling hasn’t caught up with the rest of their mind, and that mismatch frustrates them. Or they love words and patterns, and are hungry for challenge. Wyla meets them at the speed of their thinking, so what they can spell finally catches up to what they can imagine.

For the grown-ups in their corner

Tried Everything

You’ve tried tutors. You’ve tried other apps. You know what hasn’t stuck. Wyla takes the linguistics, phonetics, and etymology principles specialist tutors use and turns them into daily practice, powered by memory science — at a fraction of the cost of a weekly session, in a magical world your child will actually want to return to.

Discerning about Tech Use

You (like us!) are skeptical of apps that are more video games than substance, and of screen time that takes more than it gives. Wyla runs on the science of reading and the memory science specialists actually use — and it’s built to center learning, not engagement metrics. Wyla’s a serious tool that happens to feel like play.

Homeschooling or Alternatively Schooling

You’ve already made a conscious choice to guide how your child learns. You don’t need another curriculum full of fluff or wasted time — you need a potent tool that’s thoughtfully designed to meet each of your children right where they’re at. Wyla teaches spelling the way it actually works, in a few minutes that easily fit into your rhythm, so the rest of the day stays yours.

Savvy Educator

You’re a literacy specialist, a heart-led teacher, a school leader or founder — and you can tell a tool built on real methodology from one just wearing the vocabulary. Wyla pairs the phonics, morphology, and etymology you know make good instruction with the memory science to actually make it stick. It’s a spelling tool you can put in front of a student or recommend to a family, without reservation.

Early Access

We’re getting ready to share Wyla this fall, and welcoming our first Beta families this summer.

Wyla is completely free to try. Beta families get early access to the full experience and will be the first to hear about launch. Join us now and help shape what Wyla becomes.

Get launch news and occasional updates from Wyla.
We won't share your address; unsubscribe anytime.

My Creatures

Cyclonix Twilight Veil
Smidge Ember Peaks
Cosmolotl Cascadia Falls

Our Story

For years, my 10-year-old daughter and I tried every spelling app we could find. Most were boring. None of them helped the words stick.

She’s brilliant — a prolific storyteller with a wild imagination and a reading list full of epic fantasy. But spelling stayed stagnant no matter what we tried — tutors, programs, every tool I could find. As a former teacher, I knew which curricula learning specialists recommended for kids wired like mine. So we tried them — all of them. But they just did not work.

So we started scheming. What if we just built our own?

In partnership with fellow parent and technical co-founder Russel Simmons, who’s spent over a decade building tools grounded in memory science, we built the World of Wyla from scratch. It’s a magical realm designed in co-creation with my daughter, for kids like her who need it.

My daughter can feel the difference in her spelling. She went from misspelling “how” and “was” to spelling “international” and “division” correctly while playing in the car this morning. She wrote a 30-page fantasy novel for school. She asks to play Bananagrams together — stepping into her newfound knowledge with confidence and glee. The relief I feel in my own body watching her step into her brilliance is actually not describable.

Mama — I’m actually getting better at spelling!

—E, age 10

We’re two parents who believe in your kids — they deserve learning tools that respect their time, their intelligence, and the way their brains work. Your child can do this. We believe so deeply in their capacity. We built Wyla to prove it.

Thanks for joining us on this ride.

—Sara and Russ, Co-Founders of Wyla

Who We Are

Sara Sadek

Sara Sadek

Co-Founder & CEO

Sara is a mother, educator, writer, and maker whose work reimagines how we raise and educate young people from a liberatory lens. She got her start as a public school teacher in West Harlem, helped grow Teach For All and Girls Who Code in their early days, and advised at Fenway Strategies — and along the way co-founded a cooperative forest preschool, trained as a doula, and facilitated circles for new parents.

She writes weekly at Sara Sadek’s Field Notes, with work published in Motherly, Mutha Magazine, and HTH Unboxed.

Russ Simmons

Russ Simmons

Co-Founder & CTO

Russ is a dad and independent researcher/developer working on education and learning technology. He was the first engineer at PayPal before co-founding Yelp and serving as its CTO. Since leaving Yelp, he’s built novel tools for learning and creation, from foreign language learning apps to new programming languages. His years of work on spaced repetition and related algorithms inform the design of the Wyla learning engine.

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