Homework
Homework help that gives hints, not answers
Your child photographs the question. What comes back is a nudge, then a stronger nudge, then a walk-through that makes them do the thinking. The worked answer is in there — but it has to be earned first.
Four ways to be stuck, four ways out
Every question carries its own help, and your child picks how much of it they need. Only the last one is locked.
Hint
Six of them, and each says more than the last. The first points at which idea is in play; the last stops just short of working it. Every question has its own six — spending them on question three costs nothing on question four.
Explanation
The idea behind the question, taught on its own — what it is, how it works, why this question is asking for it. It stops before the answer to this particular question, and that stop is enforced, not requested.
Guided
A back-and-forth that asks your child questions instead of answering theirs, one step at a time, until they get there. They can type their replies — or, where their device allows it, just say them.
Answer
The fully worked solution. It stays locked until there is real effort behind it, and when it opens it brings a fresh question of the same kind with it — because the point was never this worksheet.
In detail
Why it won't just answer it
Point a phone at a maths question and half a dozen apps will hand back the answer in four seconds. They are very good at this. That is the problem. A child who copies an answer has learned the shape of a finished solution and nothing else. The worksheet goes in on time, the evening is peaceful, everybody is happy — and the gap surfaces at the exam, where there is no phone.
So this refuses. Not by being coy, and not by being slow: the help is immediate, real, and specific to the question actually in front of them. It simply starts one step behind the answer and works backwards from there, so that the last step across the line is always your child’s.
That makes for a longer evening than the answer machines. It is supposed to.
How the answer gets unlocked
The worked answer is not withheld on a mood. It is a rule, and it is checked on our servers rather than in the browser, so it cannot be clicked past or waited out. A question opens its answer when any one of these is true:
- All six hints have been used on that question.
- Your child has opened the explanation and spent at least a minute on the question.
- Your child has gone at least two turns with the guided walk-through and spent at least a minute on the question.
A revealed answer is not a mastered question
A minute sounds like nothing, and it is meant to. It is a floor against a child tapping straight through to the answer, not a punishment for a child who is genuinely stuck at nine in the evening. The gate is designed to be passable. It is only designed not to be free.
What it costs is counted honestly. When an answer is revealed, that question is recorded as help received rather than knowledge shown — its contribution to your child’s mastery of the chapter is capped low, no matter how confident they feel afterwards. And a similar question comes with it, so the mastery is still there to be earned properly. Nothing is taken away. It just isn’t given.
Where the help comes from
This is not a general answer engine pointed at your child's worksheet. It works from your child's own textbook — the chapter the question belongs to, already in their library — so a hint uses the method their book teaches and the words their teacher used, rather than a method from a different edition of a different course written for a different country.
When the chapter isn't there, the help doesn't stop — it narrows. The question is worked from its own text alone, which is honest but thinner: it can explain the question, without knowing how your child's particular book teaches it. Adding the chapter to their library is what turns the thin version back into the real one.
What you see, and what you deliberately do not
The parent view shows effort, not content: which assignments are done, which are overdue, how many hints were used, how many explanations were opened, and whether a submission was finished independently or leaned heavily on help. If your child’s reliance is climbing, that view says so weeks before an exam does.
You do not get the transcript. You cannot read the hints they were given or the back-and-forth they had while working it out, and that is a decision rather than an omission. A child who knows a parent is reading over their shoulder stops asking the questions they most need to ask — the embarrassing one, the one about something from two years ago, the one they would never raise in class. Those are the questions worth protecting.
So the summary is yours and the conversation is theirs.
Getting a question in
Photograph it
A worksheet page, a question from the book, or the PDF the school sent. Handwritten questions are read too.
Or just type it
For a single question, typing it is faster than finding decent light.
A page becomes questions
A photographed sheet comes back split into separate numbered questions, each with its own help and its own six hints.
Whatever kind it is
Short answers, multiple choice, calculations, essays, diagrams and proofs.
Where this stops
- No teacher is involved. There are no live classes and nobody is reading this at the other end — the help is there at eleven at night precisely because it is not a person, and we would rather say that plainly than let you picture one.
- A question we can't tie to a chapter in your child's library still gets help — but it is worked from the question alone, so it can't lean on the method their own book uses. Hints are thinner when the chapter isn't there.
- Listen-aloud uses your device's own voice, so it is there on most phones and laptops and quietly absent on the few that don't offer one.
Questions parents ask
Can my child just skip the hints and get the answer?
Not immediately. The worked answer for a question unlocks only after all six hints have been used, or after the explanation plus at least a minute on that question, or after two turns of the guided walk-through plus at least a minute. The rule is enforced on our servers rather than in the browser, so it cannot be clicked past. And a revealed answer is recorded as help received rather than a question mastered, with a similar question offered so the mastery can still be earned.
How many hints does each question get?
Six — and they are per question, not per worksheet, so a hard question three doesn't leave your child with nothing for question four. Each hint says more than the one before it: the first points at which idea is in play, the middle ones name the concept and the first step, and the last ones stop just short of working it through.
What can my child upload?
A photograph of a worksheet page, a question from the textbook, or a PDF. Handwritten questions are read as well. The page comes back split into separate numbered questions, each with its own help.
What if the question is from a chapter we have not added?
Then it will not get hints. Homework help works from your child's own textbook chapters, so a question that cannot be placed against one in their library gets nothing rather than a confident guess at a method their book does not use. Adding that chapter to the library is what fixes it.
Can I see what help my child used?
You see the shape of it, not the content: assignments done and overdue, hints used, explanations opened, and whether a submission was finished independently or leaned heavily on help. You do not see the hint text or the guided conversation. A child who knows a parent is reading stops asking the questions they most need to ask, so the summary is yours and the conversation is theirs.
Is there a teacher on the other end?
No. There are no live classes and no human tutor. This is your child, their own textbook and tonight’s homework, with help that is there whenever they sit down to it.
Tonight's homework is already waiting. Tomorrow's chapter is too.
We don't teach a generic syllabus. We teach your child's.