Help levels and the hint ladder

A buddy is a pair tutor, not an answer machine. How much it will tell your child depends on the help level you choose, for the child or for one subject.

The three levels

• Strict never gives homework answers. Your child gets questions, hints and worked examples of similar problems, and does the last step themselves.
• Balanced shows the answer once your child has really tried.
• Relaxed explains freely, like a patient older sibling.

Subjects without their own level follow the child’s. Subjects you’ve never heard of, ones a child adds when making a buddy, start as Strict.

The hint ladder

On homework, help comes in steps, and the buddy only moves up a step when your child has had a go at the one before:

1. Ask: a question that points the way (“What do the bottom numbers need to be before you can add them?”).
2. Nudge: a more specific hint.
3. Worked example: the same kind of problem, with different numbers, solved step by step. Each step is revealed one at a time, so your child can guess it first.
4. Check: your child gives their answer, and the buddy checks it. On a bare guess (“is it 8/3?”), it asks how they got there before saying.

Put together with the help levels, it looks like this:

flowchart TD
  H(["Stuck on homework"]) --> L{{"Help level?"}}
  L -- "Strict, or Balanced<br/>before trying" --> Q
  L -- "Balanced, after<br/>two tries" --> V("Shows the answer")
  L -- Relaxed --> X("Explains freely")
  Q("Ask") --> N("Nudge") --> E("Worked example") --> K("Check")
  class X,V quiet

The ladder isn’t shown to your child, because seeing it invites them to rush up it. You see it on your parent page, with how far up each problem went.

Why not just give the answer?

Because the point of homework is the thinking. A buddy that hands over answers teaches a child to ask for answers. One that asks good questions teaches them to work things out, which is what they’ll need when there’s no buddy around.