Word Blaster parent guide

1 What Word Blaster is

Word Blaster is a spelling game built around the list your child brings home from school. You add this week's words, and your child practises them in short, colourful games: letter tiles that blast apart, scrambled words to fix, a practice test, and a daily challenge. Every word can be read aloud, and a crew of cartoon cats cheers them on.

It was built by a dad for his own 5th grader and is now being tested with a few more families. It has no ads, no trackers, and your child never needs an email address or password.

2 Getting started

Word Blaster runs in the web browser, so there's nothing to install. It works on Android tablets, iPads, phones, Chromebooks and computers with a recent version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.

1. On your child's device, open ourmvp.app/play.
2. On the Welcome! 👋 card, type your child's first name or a nickname under What's your name? A nickname is fine. You never need their full name.
3. Pick their Grade (optional) if you like.
4. Tap Next ➜ to add this week's words now (see section 3), or tap ✨ Just looking? Try a sample list to jump straight into the game with 10 sample words. You can add your real list later.

After setup you land on the menu. It shows today's play time toward the daily goal, the Daily Challenge, the game modes, and this week's words (tap any word to hear it).

3 Adding your child's weekly list

There are three ways to add a list: paste or type it, take a photo of the paper, or pick a photo you already have. You can add it during the first-run setup (after Next ➜), or any time from the Grown-ups area.

From the Grown-ups area (the usual way each week)

1. On the menu, press and hold 👪 Grown-ups: hold 2 seconds until it fills up. A quick tap won't open it, so little fingers don't wander in by accident.
2. Find 📅 Week planner.
3. Choose one of these:
   • ＋ Add a week (type or paste): give the week a name and a start date, then paste the words, one per line or separated by commas. Numbering like “1.” is removed for you.
   • 📷 Add a week from a photo: take a photo of the paper list.
   • 🖼 Pick a photo: use a photo that's already on the device.
4. Check the words, set the Week name and Starts on date, then tap 💾 Save this week.

Photo import: read on your device

When you use a photo, the words are read on the device itself. The photo is never uploaded. You then review the list: fix any word, untick anything that isn't a spelling word (blurry guesses are shown in orange and start unticked), or tap ＋ Add a word.

How weeks switch over

• Each saved week switches on by itself on its start date, so you can add next week's list early.
• ▶ Use now picks any week right away. 🔀 Use mixed review (all weeks) practises every week's words together. ⏱ Back to automatic follows the calendar again.
• Stars belong to each word, so they carry over if a word shows up again in a later week.
• Spaces and hyphens (like post office or well-known) are kept. In the tile games they're filled in for your child; in Test Day they type them, just like on the real test.

To edit a list later, use Weekly word list further down the Grown-ups area: pick the week, change the words, and tap 💾 Save this week.

4 The game modes

Same words, different games, so practice doesn't get boring. Tap a mode on the menu to start a round.

Unscramble's built-in helper

• Starter letters: the first letter, plus about one letter in four for longer words, start locked in place (gold tiles with a padlock).
• 💡 Hint: reads the word aloud, then again slowly.
• Helper letters: after every 3 wrong tries, the next letter drops into place.
• Fading: after two clean solves of a word, it starts with one fewer starter letter next time, so help shrinks as your child improves.
• Stars: ⭐⭐⭐ solved on their own, ⭐⭐ with a few slips, ⭐ with helper letters. Every word still counts as solved.

On the menu, 🎯 My weakest words narrows practice to the words that need the most work. The 🔊 button replays the word, and you can hear any word on the menu by tapping it.

5 Stars, stickers & cats

• Stars: each word collects stars as it's spelled correctly. The ⭐ counter on the menu shows progress through this week's list.
• Daily goal & streak: the default goal is 15 minutes a day (you can change it in Grown-ups › Settings › Daily play goal). Time only counts while a round is actually being played, not on menus, when paused, or during button mashing. Reaching the goal wins the sticker of the day and keeps the streak going.
• Stickers & badges: 🏅 My Stickers & Badges opens the sticker book: cat stickers won by “firsts” (first word, first round, a 10 combo, and so on), badges, unlockable backgrounds and high scores.
• The cats: every sidekick is one of our family's real cats, drawn as a cartoon. Bolt (who is deaf) signs along with each word, Scotti cheers, and the kittens curl up to say “better luck next time”. The cats are just for fun and never change scores.
• Gizmo's Bonus: Gizmo is the compound-word cat. Each different compound word your child spells (like light bulb or sunflower) sews a patch onto her coat, and 6 patches win her sticker. If this week's list doesn't have enough compound words, a Gizmo's Bonus card appears on the menu with 6 kid-friendly compound words, so she can always be earned.
• No punishments: points are never taken away. Silly button mashing just gets a playful warning.

6 More than one child

Each child gets their own player with their own lists, stars, stickers and play time on the same device.

Add a player

1. Hold 👪 Grown-ups: hold 2 seconds.
2. In 👥 Players, type the New player's name (a first name or nickname) and pick a Grade (optional).
3. Tap ＋ Add player. A short setup follows: add their first list, then tap ▶ Start playing!

Switch players

On the menu, tap the big name chip (the picture and name at the top, for example Riley switch ▾), then tap a name under Who's playing? You can rename or remove players in Grown-ups › 👥 Players.

7 Picking an avatar

Every player has a picture next to their name. There are 74 to choose from in five groups: Cool (made with older kids in mind: gaming headsets, a drum kit, a wolf and more), Animals, Sports, Fun Stuff and Nature & Space. Kids can change it whenever they like. It never affects stars or progress.

1. On the menu, tap the name chip (the picture and name at the top, for example Riley switch ▾).
2. Under Who's playing?, tap 🎨 Pick my avatar.
3. Pick a group along the top (Cool is first), then tap a picture. It's saved straight away, and the new picture shows on the menu.

8 The Grown-ups area

Press and hold 👪 Grown-ups: hold 2 seconds at the bottom of the menu until it fills. When you're finished, tap ✓ Done. Inside you'll find:

On the website there's also a 📖 Parent guide link at the top of the Grown-ups area that opens this page.

9 Family account & sync (optional)

A family account lets the same players, lists and progress follow your child between devices, for example a tablet at home and a laptop.

Sign in on a device that already has players

1. On the menu, hold 👪 Grown-ups: hold 2 seconds.
2. Scroll to ☁️ Family account.
3. Type the grown-up's Email and Password, then tap Sign in.
4. The players on this device are linked to your account and synced. A backup of this device's data is kept in the browser before the first sync.

Sign in on a new device (do this before typing a name)

1. Open ourmvp.app/play on the new device.
2. On the Welcome card, press and hold 👪 Have a family account? Grown-ups: hold to sign in.
3. Enter the email and password and tap Sign in. Your children's players appear. Pick one and play.

How syncing works

• It syncs when you sign in, after every round, on the menu (at most once a minute), and whenever you tap ⟳ Sync now.
• A small cloud icon next to the name shows the state: a check means synced, dots mean syncing, ! means an error, and a slash means offline. Play carries on offline and syncs later.
• Progress is combined, never thrown away: stickers and badges from both devices are kept, stars keep the highest, and play time from each device counts once.
• Sign out syncs first, then stops. Sign out & remove the account's players from this device also clears those players from that device (handy for a shared or school device).

10 Backing up your progress

Without a family account, progress lives only in that browser on that device. Clearing the browser's data, or using a private/incognito window, erases it. Make a backup now and then:

1. Hold 👪 Grown-ups: hold 2 seconds and scroll to Move lists between devices.
2. Tap ⬇ Export (JSON file) to download a backup file of every player, or 📋 Copy JSON to copy it.
3. To restore it, or to move to another device, open the same section there and tap ⬆ Import file, or paste the text and tap Import pasted JSON. The same player is merged, not doubled.

11 Privacy: what is and isn't stored

Questions, or want your family account's data removed? Email support@ourmvp.app.

12 Classroom mode

If your child's teacher runs a Word Blaster class, your child taps 🏫 Join Class on the menu (or 🏫 Join a Class on the Welcome card), types the code from the board and their first name, and taps Join! ➜. No account is needed, class rounds don't change your child's own stars or stickers, and nothing about the class is kept afterwards. Teachers can read the teacher guide.