Getting started

1. Open the link we emailed you

   The moment your payment goes through, two things happen. The screen you are on becomes your download page, and a copy of the same link goes to the email address you paid with.

   Tapping that link opens everything on whatever device you tap it on. There is no username and nothing to remember — the link itself is the key, which is why the email is worth keeping.

   Not arrived? Give it ten minutes, then look in Promotions and in Spam — that is where it goes nine times out of ten. It has not gone missing: you can ask for a fresh one at any time, from the sign-in page, and it will be a different working link.

2. Choose a password

   On the download page, under your files, there is a card headed “Choose a password” waiting for you. It is the one step worth doing straight away, and the only one in this whole list that is not obvious later.

   Choose a password Password •••••••••••• Save it and finish

   Type something at least 8 characters long and press the button. Three small words in a row works far better than something clever with a symbol in it — you will be typing this on a tablet, one-handed, with a four-year-old leaning on your arm.

   Your account is the email address you paid with. You never type it into the password box — the site already knows whose account it is, and shows you the address above the field so you can check it.

   Why bother, if the link works? Because the tablet your child will actually use is probably not the phone you paid on, and a password gets you in there in ten seconds instead of forwarding an email to yourself. It is optional, always — skip it and nothing breaks.

3. Coming back, on any device

   Everything starts at the sign-in page. There are two doors on that page and both of them work — you do not have to pick the right one.

   With a password

   Type “The email you paid with” and your password, and press Sign in. Nothing to wait for.

   Without one

   Give the same address to “Email me a link instead” instead, lower down the page. A fresh link lands in your inbox and opens the Lab on that device.

   Forgotten the password? The same page carries a quiet line reading “I set a password and have forgotten it” that emails you a one-time link, and the link drops you straight onto the form for choosing a new one. It works once and stops working after two days.

4. The Grown-ups page

   This is your side of the site — the one place with your files, your children and your membership on it. Nothing here is for the child to read, and there is nothing on it that scores them.

   • Your downloads Every file you have bought, sitting there for good. Print them as often as you like, for your own family — or for one classroom, if you teach. This is the answer to “I have lost the ZIP” — you have not.
   • Children Add a first name or a nickname, up to six. We never ask for an age or a birthday. Add a second child and a “Who is playing?” menu appears at the top of the Lab, so two children on one tablet keep separate stars.
   • A card for each child Stars collected, activities finished, days played, and which kinds they have tried — the faded ones are the kinds they have not touched yet. There is a “Next up” button that opens exactly where they left off.
   • Your access What you own, in plain words, and the date anything runs out. If you are paying monthly, the button that stops it is on this page and not hidden behind an email to us.
   Shared a link with somebody? At the bottom of the page, next to your password, sits “Sign out every other device” ready for exactly that. One tap turns every link and every other signed-in device to dust, and leaves the one you are holding alone.

   Open the Grown-ups page

5. Playing an activity

   The Lab opens on a wall of cards in day order, one per activity — 162 of them, with the other 203 left for paper and a pencil. Each card shows the day number, what kind it is, its title, and three little stars that fill in once it has been played.

   The row of tabs along the top filters by kind, which is the useful part on a tired evening — if tracing is going down well tonight, tap Trace the line and the wall becomes nothing but tracing.

   Everything Circle them Drag and drop Join the pairs Find the way Count and think Trace the line

   Tap a card and the activity fills the screen. Along the top: an arrow back to the wall, the title and the day, the star jar, and a speaker you can switch off. Along the bottom, two buttons and only two.

   “Show me”

   A hint, when they are stuck and about to give up. Worth using: it caps the activity at two stars, and a finished two beats an abandoned three every time.

   “Check it”

   Marks the answer. A wrong one is never a dead end — the line under the title turns into a nudge and they simply carry on. Nothing is taken away and nothing ends.

   Finish it and one of the crew turns up to cheer, the stars fly into the jar, and two buttons offer another go at the same one or the next activity. That is the whole loop. Most take about five minutes.

   About the stars Three for getting it right first time without a hint, two for getting most of it right or getting there with one, one for finishing at all. Every child who finishes gets at least one, every time, on purpose. They are a reason to come back tomorrow, not a mark out of three, and nothing on this site turns them into a score for your child.

   Stars are saved as they are earned, and saved again on the device, so a dropped connection halfway through never costs the afternoon.

   Go to the Lab

Not bought anything yet? See what is in the Lab