If a single BOOM from a nearby fireworks display sends your kids running to bury their heads in your lap, you may need kinder, gentler fireworks this Fourth of July. Like the ones found on this cute new fireworks app, Fireworks Lab, which lets our youngest kids set off fireworks on their own terms, even if that means with the sound turned way down low.

Launching today, Fireworks Lab is a simple, fun, totally non-educational but adorable app that lets kids decide which fireworks to include in their display, from big round boomers to long, thin whistlers. With their cartoony faces, these fireworks don’t seem scary in the least. Nor do they explode which could be a bit traumatic for a child who likes the anthropomorphized firecrackers. Instead, the display seems to pour out of the top of their “heads” and into the sky.

Fireworks Lab for kids on the Fourth of July
While the firecrackers themselves are cute and cartoony, the fireworks displays they create are realistic, with pretty lights and familiar sound effects. My kids’ favorite thing to do is to get all five fireworks going at once, in grand finale style. And hey, there’s no traffic to grapple with when the show is all done.

Download a copy of Fireworks Lab by Cowly Owl for $.99 beginning on July 2nd. Available on iOS and Android.