Support & FAQ — Hoot Math Facts

Welcome! This page answers the most common questions about Hoot Math Facts. If you don't find your answer here, contact us at vmg.registrations@outlook.com — we read every message and aim to reply within 2 business days.

The short version of everything below: the app costs $3.99 once, has no ads, no accounts, and no subscriptions, works completely offline, and collects no data.

Getting Started

How do I start? Download the app, open it, and create a profile for your child (a first name or nickname is fine — it never leaves the device). Pick an operation to start with — most families begin with addition or multiplication — and tap Start. Sessions are short by design; one session a day is a great rhythm.

Does my child need an account or an email? No. There are no accounts, no sign-in, and no email address anywhere in the app. Just open it and practice.

Which devices does it work on? iPhone and iPad running iOS 17 or later. Progress is stored separately on each device — the app does not sync between devices, because syncing would require sending your child's data somewhere, and this app sends it nowhere.

How long should my child practice? Little and often beats long and rare. One short session (a few minutes) most days will move facts to mastery far better than one long weekend session. There's no daily limit and no streak punishment for missing a day.

Child Profiles

How many children can use the app? Up to 4 local child profiles on one device. Each profile has its own progress, mastery levels, fluency goal, session history, and sticker collection — siblings never overwrite each other's work.

How do I add, switch, or remove a profile? Tap the profile avatar/name on the home screen to switch between profiles. Adding another profile (after the first) asks for the parental gate on the profile picker; resetting a child's data lives in the parent area: tap "For grown-ups", complete the parental gate (a simple addition check), then Settings.

Can I use a nickname instead of my child's real name? Absolutely — and we encourage it if you prefer. Any name you type stays only on your device.

We bought the app once — can my other kids use it on their own iPads? Yes, through Apple Family Sharing, which is enabled for this app. Each family member downloads the app from the App Store under Family Sharing at no extra charge. Note that each device keeps its own profiles and progress locally.

The Fluency Goal — Explained

What is the fluency goal? It's the response-time pace the app uses to judge whether a fact counts as "fluent," and you choose it in the parent area. It is not a countdown that fails your child — a slow-but-correct answer is never marked as a mistake. It simply tells the app: bring this fact back sooner for more practice.

What are the options?

• Untimed — no time expectation at all. Best for beginners, younger children, and any child who gets anxious about speed. Accuracy and understanding come first.
• 12 seconds (default) — a relaxed pace for building solid, accurate recall.
• 6 seconds — steady, confident recall without counting on fingers.
• 3 seconds — true automaticity: the fact is just known. A great long-term goal, never a starting point.

Which one should I pick? Start where your child is. If timed anything causes tears, choose Untimed and stay there as long as it's useful — the mastery engine still works fully. When answers start coming quickly and confidently on their own, step down to 12s, then 6s. Think of 3s as graduation, not the entrance exam.

Can I set a different goal for each child? Yes. The fluency goal is per profile, so your 6-year-old can be Untimed while your 8-year-old works at 6s.

Can I change it later? Any time, in the parent area. Changing the goal never erases progress — it just changes how the app schedules review.

The Parent Area & The Heatmap

How do I open the parent area? Tap the "For grown-ups" row at the bottom of the home screen, then answer the arithmetic parental gate — a simple addition check such as 20 + 7 (a round ten plus a single digit, no carrying). A wrong answer just deals a fresh problem; there's no lockout. The gate is there so children stay in the practice area and grown-ups get the settings and reports. (Creating your very first profile doesn't need the gate.) It is a lightweight check by design, not a strong adult-only barrier: a confident older child may be able to solve it.

What does the heatmap mean? The mastery map shows every tracked fact for each operation — for multiplication, that's every pairing from 2×2 to 12×12 (facts with 0 or 1 aren't tracked; they're rules, not fluency). Each cell is one fact, colored by your child's mastery level for that specific fact:

• Fluent (gold, ★) — answered correctly and fluently across more than one day — the app requires correct answers in separate sessions, so a star always means real recall
• In progress / learning — introduced and being practiced; accuracy or speed is still building
• Not yet introduced — the app hasn't presented this fact yet

Until your child has practiced at least once, the map area shows a clearly labeled SAMPLE so you can see what it will look like — the app never invents progress data.

Patterns are normal and useful: a wobbly row often means one number (say, the 7s) needs attention — exactly what the app will automatically emphasize in upcoming sessions. The "What next" line at the top of the parent area names that family for you.

What is "mastered this week"? A simple count of facts that reached fluent in the last 7 days, with the change versus the week before — the number to celebrate at dinner.

What does session history show? Each past session: date, operation(s), how many facts were practiced, and how it went. It's stored only on the device.

Practice: Hints, Explain, Stars & Stickers

My child is stuck. What help is inside the app? Two kinds. The hint shows the fact visually — a dot array for multiplication (with skip-counting that reveals one term at a time as your child counts along), and for division, dots your child deals into groups by tapping. Explain gives a calm, step-by-step walkthrough that names the strategy for the fact — doubles, make-ten, splitting 7 × 8 into 7 × 5 + 7 × 3. Both teach; neither just flashes the answer — in fact, the hints are designed so the final answer is the one thing they don't show.

What happens when my child answers wrong? No buzzers, no red marks. The app shows the correct fact once, your child says it out loud, and then types the full answer from memory to continue. If that's still hard, a tap-to-reveal version appears as a fallback. The fact then comes back later in the session and again in a future session.

How do stars work? A star means a fact is fluent: your child answered it correctly, within the fluency goal, across separate practice sessions — never from repeating it in one sitting. Stars are never taken away for a later miss.

What are stickers? Is there anything to buy? Stickers are earned for practicing and for milestones, and they're collected in the child's sticker collection. There is no sticker shop, no currency, and nothing to buy — anywhere in the app, ever. The app has no in-app purchases at all.

What is "Practice the Tricky Ones"? At the end of a session, the summary lists the facts your child missed. Practice the Tricky Ones starts a short extra round with just those facts, while they're fresh. It's optional — finishing a session is already a win.

Worksheets

How do I print a worksheet? Open the parent area ("For grown-ups" + parental gate), scroll to Worksheets, and tap to generate a PDF. Section 1 is the facts your child has practiced and found tricky; if fewer than 20 qualify, a "Try next" section adds brand-new facts in the order the app teaches them. Then use the standard iOS share/print sheet to Print, save to Files, or AirDrop it.

Can I print an answer key? The generated PDF is a practice sheet of problems. If your app version includes an answer key page, it is printed as a separate final page so you can keep it aside — check the print preview before printing double-sided.

The worksheet looks too easy / too hard. The worksheet reflects the facts your child has practiced and found tricky right now. As your child masters facts, the next worksheet automatically moves on. If everything looks too easy, that's good news — check the mastery map; it may be time to step the fluency goal down (12s → 6s).

Sound

How do I turn sound on or off? In the parent area under Settings, and also check your device: the hardware silent switch / Focus mode and the volume buttons control the device, which the app respects. If you hear nothing, check the silent switch first (iPhone) and that media volume is up.

Does the app read questions aloud? Practice is visual by design, so children learn to recognize facts on sight — the skill school actually tests. Sound in the app is limited to gentle feedback and celebrations.

Data, Privacy & Resetting

Does it work offline? Yes — completely. Airplane mode, car rides, flights, no Wi-Fi at Grandma's: everything works, because everything lives on the device.

Does it collect data about my child? No. None. No account, no analytics, no ads, no third-party SDKs, and nothing is transmitted anywhere. Our App Store privacy label is "Data Not Collected," and our full policy is here.

How do I reset a child's progress? Parent area → select the profile → Reset/Delete. Resetting removes that child's progress, history, stars, and stickers from the device permanently. Other profiles are untouched.

How do I delete everything? Delete the app. iOS removes all of its local data with it. There is no server copy — reinstalling starts completely fresh.

We got a new iPad. Can we move progress? Because the app stores everything only on-device and never transmits it, there is no built-in transfer. An iOS device-to-device migration or a full device backup/restore performed by iOS itself may carry the app's data to the new device — that's controlled by iOS and Apple, not by the app. Starting fresh is also fine: the adaptive engine re-learns your child's level within a few sessions.

Buying, Price & Refunds

How much does it cost? $3.99, once. No in-app purchases, no subscriptions, no ads — the price on the App Store is the whole price, forever.

Why isn't it free? Because "free" kids' apps are usually paid for with ads, data, or subscriptions. We'd rather charge once, fairly, and owe you a good app instead of owing advertisers your child's attention.

How do refunds work? All purchases are processed by Apple, so refunds are handled by Apple too. Go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in with the Apple ID used for the purchase, find Hoot Math Facts, and follow Apple's refund steps. We can't issue refunds directly — Apple never shares your payment details with us.

Is Family Sharing really included? Yes. Buy once with your Apple ID and family members in your Family Sharing group can download the app at no extra cost. Each device keeps its own local profiles.

Troubleshooting

The parental gate won't accept my answer. Double-check the arithmetic (it changes every time) and make sure you're entering just the number, with no extra characters. The gate is a simple addition check (a round ten plus a single digit, no carrying), kept easy to unlock by design.

Progress looks wrong / a fact keeps repeating. Repetition of not-yet-fluent facts is the engine working as designed — a fact resurfaces until it's answered correctly and fluently across sessions. If a fact your child clearly knows keeps returning, check that the fluency goal isn't set faster than their current pace (a correct-but-slow answer keeps the fact in rotation, by design).

The app is on my phone but not on our iPad. Open the App Store on the iPad, tap your account icon → Purchased (or the family purchaser's name under Family Sharing), and download it from there.

Contact

Still stuck, found a bug, or have an idea that would help your child? Email us at vmg.registrations@outlook.com. A screenshot and your iOS version help us help you faster. We aim to reply within 2 business days.