Modulo

Duolingo

Recommended Ages

K-12th Grades

Many families want to add a world language but find traditional textbooks too dry and tutors too expensive. Duolingo offers a free, gamified way to practice over 30 languages in bite-sized lessons that fit into busy family schedules. Created by Luis von Ahn’s team with the mission of making language education accessible worldwide, the app uses spaced repetition, adaptive exercises, and streak-based motivation to keep learners coming back. We love how easy it is to track progress, revisit weak areas, and sneak in practice on phones or tablets. Duolingo is best for older kids, teens, and adults who can read independently and enjoy quick, goal-oriented challenges. For younger children or anyone needing real-time conversation practice, it works best as a supplement rather than a standalone curriculum. Pro tip: choose the “writing” and “speaking” intensive practice options regularly and pair Duolingo with short conversation sessions, songs, or shows in the target language for more well-rounded learning.

Best for game-loving kids and teens who enjoy collecting points and streaks, are comfortable with screens, and need a low-pressure way to reinforce vocabulary and basic reading/listening skills as part of a broader language plan.

Pros

Free or low-cost access to dozens of languages with a cute, highly gamified interface; bite-sized lessons fit easily into a daily homeschool routine; automatic sequencing means kids always know what to do next; widely used by secular homeschoolers as a fun supplement for vocabulary, reading, and listening practice rather than a full curriculum. 

Cons

Not a complete foreign-language curriculum—there is limited explicit grammar instruction and little real conversation practice; some exercises can be done by guessing, which may lead to shallow learning; streaks, hearts, and ads can be distracting or stressful for some kids; quality and audio accuracy vary across language courses. 

Duolingo sells directly through mainstream app stores and does not publish a list of approved ESA or charter programs; some families use general education funds or technology stipends to reimburse subscriptions, but eligibility varies by state and school, so you’ll need to confirm with your specific ESA or charter.

Free with premium options

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Duolingo
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Skills

What kids will learn
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World Languages
World Languages

Duolingo Mission

Duolingo’s mission is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available by turning language, math, music, and other core skills into bite-sized, game-like lessons anyone can access for free on their phone. The app uses playful characters, streaks, and adaptive practice to keep learners of all ages engaged while dramatically lowering the cost and barriers of high-quality instruction worldwide.

Duolingo Story

Duolingo grew out of Carnegie Mellon professor Luis von Ahn’s research on crowdsourcing and his desire to use technology to expand educational access. In 2011 he and his PhD student Severin Hacker launched a free language-learning platform that originally doubled as a way to translate the web, then steadily evolved into today’s AI-powered learning app with millions of daily users and courses in dozens of languages plus math and music. The company has stayed mission-driven even as it scaled into a public edtech leader, using a freemium model so the core learning experience remains free for everyone.

About Modular Learning

FAQ: Additional Details about Duolingo

A typical session starts with your child opening the app, checking their streak, and tapping into the next lesson on the Path. They listen to short sentences, tap pictures, type or drag words into place, sometimes speak into the microphone, and finish feeling like they’ve played a quick game while earning XP, gems, and badges.

Duolingo is a free, gamified language-learning app where learners choose from 40+ languages and complete short lessons that practice reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Families can set a daily goal, pick a course path, and treat 1–3 lessons a day as their homeschool foreign-language block, optionally adding math, music, or chess tracks in the same app. 

For younger learners, parents usually sit in for the first few sessions to model how to answer questions, help with reading, and reinforce new words in daily life; with tweens and teens, parents mostly check streaks and progress or use Duolingo for Schools to track XP and time-on-task as part of a language credit. 

Kids should be comfortable navigating a device and either reading basic on‑screen instructions or having an adult nearby to read them aloud; older learners need no prior language experience.

Duolingo’s gamified, bite‑size lessons are often motivating for ADHD and older autistic learners who like streaks and quick wins. Reading load and small font can be tough for dyslexic kids, so it works best as a supplement rather than a primary tool for younger or struggling readers.

Duolingo notes that subscription charges and in‑app purchases are generally non‑refundable, and there are no credits for partially used periods; any refunds that do happen are typically processed through Apple or Google’s standard app‑store refund systems rather than by Duolingo itself. 

Not a good stand-alone choice for families seeking high-school credit, strong speaking skills, or deep grammar understanding; may not work well for kids already overscheduled with screen time or who find gamified pressure systems anxiety‑provoking.

For a more structured and conversational program, consider Mango Languages, Homeschool Languages, or Coffee Break Languages; for live conversation practice, many secular homeschoolers pair Duolingo with one‑to‑one tutoring on italki. 

Duolingo is actively updated, with recent expansions beyond languages into math, music, and chess, plus periodic redesigns of the learning Path and continued improvements in adaptive practice and stories. 

Treat Duolingo as a 5–10 minute daily warm‑up: turn off social features for younger kids, sit nearby the first week to model careful listening instead of guessing, and follow each session with a few minutes of real‑life conversation or reading in the target language.

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Meet Luis and Severin

Luis von Ahn is a Guatemalan‑American computer scientist, MacArthur “genius grant” recipient, and serial entrepreneur who co‑invented CAPTCHA, created reCAPTCHA, and later co‑founded Duolingo, where he now serves as CEO focused on using technology to democratize education. Severin Hacker is a Swiss‑American computer scientist who studied under von Ahn at Carnegie Mellon University and co‑founded Duolingo with him in 2011; as CTO he now leads the company’s AI‑driven product and engineering work.