Privacy Policy
Last updated 28 October 2026
The short version. We do not use cookies and we run no advertising. Our games keep their progress on your own device. The one thing we store on our side is an optional learning account: a child's nickname, a PIN and a parent's email address, created only after that parent approves by email, so the child's lesson progress can follow them between devices. We count page views, and nothing more.
Who we are
Pilgrim's Ranch is a family website sharing our homesteading life, along with free educational games we built for our own children and made available to anyone who wants them. This policy covers pilgrimsranch.com and everything on it.
What we collect about you
Almost nothing. We never ask for your name. There is no newsletter to join and no contact form. The one exception is the optional learning account described below, which holds a child's nickname, a PIN and a parent's email address, and exists only because a parent approved it. We do not run advertising, and we do not sell, share or trade information about visitors.
Cookies and tracking
This site sets no cookies. There are no advertising trackers, no social media pixels, no session recording, and no Google Analytics.
What we do use: a page counter
Our host provides a privacy-focused measurement tool called Cloudflare Web Analytics, and it is switched on. It tells us roughly how many people visited and which pages they looked at. We use it for one reason: to know whether any of this is useful to anyone.
It is deliberately the least invasive option we could use:
- It sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device.
- It does not fingerprint your browser or device.
- It does not follow you to other websites, and cannot be used to build a profile of you.
- We see only aggregated counts. We cannot identify you, and we do not try to.
As with any request to any website, your IP address is necessarily involved in delivering the page and recording the visit. We never receive it in a form that identifies you personally, and we do not use it to target anything at you or your children.
What our games store on your device
Our three learning games save progress so a child does not have to start over each time. This is kept using your browser's own local storage. It stays on that device, is never transmitted to us, and we cannot see it.
| What is stored | Why |
|---|---|
| A first name the child chooses | So the game can greet them by name on their own screen |
| Lessons passed, stars, accuracy, and review schedule | So progress is not lost when the page closes |
| Settings such as sound, theme, voice and speed | So preferences persist between visits |
The names used are keys_of_the_kingdom_v1, lamp_to_my_feet_v1 and
number_our_days_v1.
How to see or delete it
Each game has a Reset progress button in its Settings that erases everything it saved. You can also clear it through your browser's "clear browsing data" or "clear site data" option. Because none of it reaches us, there is nothing for you to request from us and nothing for us to delete on our end. The exception is a child with a learning account: what is saved online for them is managed, and can be deleted, on the parent page.
Learning accounts (optional, parent-approved)
A child using Keys of the Kingdom, Read Aloud or Play Skillfully (piano) can choose Save my progress everywhere. That makes a free learning account, so their progress in those courses is also saved on our server and comes with them to another phone or computer. Nothing requires it: every course works exactly the same without one.
How an account is made
- The child picks a nickname (we ask them not to use their real name, and the same word filter as our games applies), a PIN, and types a parent's email address.
- We email that parent. Nothing is saved online until the parent approves by opening the link in that email. Until then the child's progress stays on their own device, as it always has.
- If no parent approves within 7 days, the request and the email address are deleted automatically.
- A parent who is already signed in can also add a child directly on the parent page, with no approval email needed.
What we store for an account
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| The child's nickname | So they can sign in, and so a parent can tell their children apart |
| The PIN, scrambled (a salted hash with a secret only our server holds) | So only the child can sign in. We cannot read it back; a parent can set a new one |
| The parent's email address | To ask for approval, to send a parent their sign-in link, and to answer a question from them. Nothing else, and never marketing |
| Lesson progress in Keys of the Kingdom, Read Aloud and Play Skillfully: which lessons, stars, accuracy and words per minute, reading and practice minutes per day | So it can be restored on another device and shown to the parent |
| When the account was made, approved and last used | Housekeeping, and so a parent can see it |
| A random sign-in token kept in the browser (stored on our side only as a hash) | So the child stays signed in on that device. A child's token lapses after 180 days without use, a parent's after 30 |
What we do not collect: real names, a child's own email address, birthdays, photos, location, messages, or anything a child types other than the nickname and their lesson answers. We keep no IP addresses with the account (a short rolling count of attempts guards against guessing, and it is not stored with anyone's data). There is no advertising, and nothing is sold or shared.
What parents can do
On the parent page, signed in with a link sent to the approved email address, a parent can see everything stored for each child, download a copy of it, approve a waiting request, set a new PIN, change a nickname, remove a child, or delete the whole account. Deleting is immediate and permanent, except that progress already on a device stays on that device. You can also ask us by email (below) and we will do it for you.
Where it is kept, and who else sees it
Accounts live in a database with our web host, Cloudflare, in the United States, and the emails are delivered by Cloudflare as well. Every connection is encrypted. No other company receives any of it. We built this to follow the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act: we collect no more than the account needs, nothing is kept until a parent has agreed, and a parent can review and delete it at any time.
Read Aloud and the microphone
Read Aloud listens to a child read so it can mark each word. The microphone is used only after a parent presses Turn on microphone inside a lesson, and it switches off at the end of the lesson, when the page is left or hidden, or after two quiet minutes. Speech is turned into words by a program running inside your browser on your own device. No audio, recording or transcript is stored, and none is sent to us or anyone else. What is saved, in this browser only, is the same kind of progress as our other games: lessons finished, stars, words read right, and reading time per day.
The first time, the page downloads the speech model (about 41 MB) from this website and keeps it in your browser's storage so later visits do not download it again. You can remove it with your browser's "clear site data" option.
Play Skillfully (piano) and the microphone
Play Skillfully listens to a piano so it can mark each note. When the player chooses a piano or keyboard that the microphone listens to, the microphone is used only while a lesson, the tune-up or free play is running after a press of Start, and it switches off when that ends, when the page is left or hidden, or after two quiet minutes. The notes are worked out by a program running inside your browser on your own device. No audio or recording is stored, and none is sent to us or anyone else. With a keyboard on a MIDI cable, the browser passes only which keys are pressed, and only to the page. What is saved, in this browser, is the same kind of progress as our other courses (lessons played, stars, practice minutes per day, settings), plus, for this device only, which instrument is in use and how far out of tune the tune-up found the piano. A child with a learning account has that progress saved online as well.
Lone Star Chess, Lone Star Checkers, Lone Star Reversi and Lone Star Golf
Lone Star Chess, Lone Star Checkers, Lone Star Reversi and Lone Star Golf each save the game in progress and your settings (sound, picture quality and level) in this browser only, under the names lonestarchess.game.v1 and lonestarchess.settings.v1, lonestarcheckers.game.v1 and lonestarcheckers.settings.v1, lonestarreversi.game.v1 and lonestarreversi.settings.v1, lonestargolf.game.v1 and lonestargolf.settings.v1. No name is asked for, and nothing is sent to us or anyone else. The computer opponent runs inside your browser on your own device. Starting a new game replaces the saved one, and your browser's "clear site data" option removes everything.
Playing Lone Star Golf online with a friend. When you start an online game, the game itself (the shuffled cards, the moves and the score) is kept on our server so that both players see the same table, with a random four-letter code and a random key for each player that this browser keeps under lonestargolf.online.v1 so you can come back to the game. No name, email or account is asked for, and we keep no IP addresses. Each player is only ever sent their own cards. A game is deleted three days after its last move.
Children
Our games are made for children, and we have built them accordingly.
- We collect personal information from a child only with a parent's approval, and only the little that an optional learning account needs: a nickname that is not a real name, a PIN, and the parent's email address. Without an account, a first name a child types into a game is stored only on their own device and is never sent to us.
- There is no messaging, no chat, no user-uploaded content and no way for a child to communicate with anyone through this site. Accounts are optional, hold no messages, and are approved by a parent.
- There is no advertising, and no behavioural profiling of any visitor.
- The page counter described above applies to every visitor equally. It sets nothing on the device, identifies no one, and is used only to count visits — never to track or target a child.
If you are a parent or guardian with a question about any of this, please get in touch using the details below.
Information handled by our web host
Like every website, ours is delivered by a hosting provider — Cloudflare. To send you a page, their servers necessarily process technical information such as your IP address, browser type and the page you requested, and they use it to deliver the site and protect it from attacks. Cloudflare also holds the learning-account database and delivers the emails described above. This is ordinary web hosting, and we do not use it to build any picture of who you are.
Other websites
We link to our Facebook page. That is an ordinary link — nothing is loaded from Facebook and nothing is shared with them unless you choose to click through, at which point their privacy policy applies rather than ours. Fonts and every other file used on this site are served from our own domain. The only exception is Cloudflare Web Analytics, described above, which loads from Cloudflare, our web host.
Scripture
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Changes to this policy
If we ever change how information is handled — for example by adding a contact form or a paid area — we will update this page and change the date at the top before that feature goes live, not afterwards.
Contact
Email us at help@pilgrimsranch.com about anything on this page, including a question from a parent or guardian about a child's use of our games. You can also send a message through our Facebook page. We read them and we will answer. If you write to us, we use your message and email address only to reply.