PlusyStuck? Hint, Show me and Next step
When your child is stuck on a column question, Plusy helps one step at a time: Hint asks a question that points at the next move, Show me fills that step in and explains it, and then it is your child's turn again. It never solves the whole question in one go.
Where is the help when my child is stuck?
Help in Plusy is behind the small Steps button beside a column question. It is also offered on fill the gap questions, and on fraction questions, where each step comes with a picture: see the Fractions road. The first column question a child ever meets shows a one-time tip, Stuck? Tap here for steps, and after a long pause or a wrong digit the button pulses once and asks Need a hint?
On a wide computer screen the Steps are a panel beside the working, open unless your child minimises it, and Plusy remembers that choice on the device. A speaker in the panel's header reads the steps aloud; it is off until it is tapped. On phones and tablets the hint is a short strip right above the number pad, so the pad stays in reach, and All steps opens the whole list.
A wrong digit is marked in soft orange and the cursor stays on it, with Check this one again. above the pad, so the next digit replaces it. A second wrong digit in the same box opens the hint by itself with the step's question only, such as 4 + 2? Plusy never fills in the digit unless your child asks.
There is no help in a test, and none on a Same trap question. One-line facts such as 6 × 7 have no steps: a wrong answer there gets a short trick instead.
What does one step show?
One step in Plusy is one thing your child writes: a column of an addition, a row of a long multiplication, one move of a long division. So the number of steps depends on the question. The current step is a card marked Now with the column's name. Until help is asked for it says only Your turn!, so it gives nothing away.
How do Hint, Show me and Next step work?
Help comes in two taps for each step, under one button that changes its name. Hint lights up the column and asks a question without giving the answer. Show me fills that one step into your child's own working and explains it, one sentence at a time. Then the question goes back to your child.
Tap Hint
Plusy lights the column to work on and asks, for example, What is 7 + 4? Many children can carry on from here.
Tap Show me, if needed
Plusy writes the digit for that step into the working and says why, one sentence at a time. Tap the hint to read its next sentence.
Your turn
The card says Your turn! and your child goes on with the next column alone. Next step asks for help with the next one.
On a fill the gap question, the help is a short walk in three parts: turn the question into its partner operation, solve that, then check it. When the gap is in a big question, such as 7285 + ? = 12253, the first step is Step 1: Flip it: the numbers move into a column grid as 12253 − 7285, and your child solves it there.
What does "on your own" count?
The on your own count shows how many steps your child typed themselves, such as 3 of 4 on your own. A digit your child typed gets a green check as soon as it is right, even if a hint was open for that step: a hint is not an answer. Only a digit Plusy wrote in, after a second tap on the hint, is left out. It shows in muted gray with a bulb in the list, and typing over it makes it your child's again.
A round finished without opening any hint pays a few extra coins. Plusy says so only on the result card, with No hints!, and never during the round.
Does asking for help lower the score?
Yes, a little. A question on which a hint was used counts as not right first time, whatever the final answer, and it comes back once later in the round like a wrong answer. Nothing else is lost: no heart is spent, because a round uses one heart and never a question.
What is "Walk me through it" after a wrong answer?
Walk me through it appears beside Continue after a wrong answer on a question your child worked in the column boxes. It walks through the question step by step on the same working, starting from your child's own digits and saying what was right before showing what went wrong.
After the last step, Try the same trap gives one new question of the same kind, typed, so your child can use what they just saw. It has no help and no skip, and the round does not score it. More in what Plusy does after a wrong answer.
Can the steps be read aloud?
Yes. Hints and walkthroughs are silent text until your child taps Hear it, and nothing in them plays by itself. Hear it then reads each sentence whole, in English or Hebrew, the two languages with hint recordings so far. The button is there only when the Voice switch is on and the device has a voice for the language. See voice and Hear it.
Questions
Is the help written by AI?
No. Every hint, step and explanation in Plusy is worked out by the app's own code from the numbers in the question. No AI is involved, so the steps are the same each time and always match the question.
Can my child just tap through the steps to get the answer?
Not in one go. Each step takes two taps, Hint then Show me, and fills in only that step, then hands the question back. A question finished with hints counts as helped and returns later in the round to be tried again.
Does a hint cost a heart or coins?
No. A hint costs nothing. A round uses one heart when it opens, and hints and wrong answers inside it are free. The only effect is that the question is not counted as right first time.
Why is there no help in a test?
A test checks what your child can do alone, so it has no hints and nothing is taught during it. The result screen then lists each missed fact with a trick to remember.