User manual

Summary

HS Elementals turns a homeschool family's day into a fantasy quest. Parents set up each child's weekly schedule of classes, chore packs and breaks. Children check off their quests and look after a hero who belongs to one of four elements: Earth, Wind, Water or Fire.

Each hero has three meters. Hearts (one per year of the child's age) and manna (ten bread loaves) slowly drain and are topped up by finishing the day's work. Gold is earned from rewards the parent chooses and is spent in the shop on outfits, gear, familiars, potions or real-world treats the family has set up.

HS Elementals is for families, not for children on their own. A parent creates the family, adds each child and builds their week.

Getting started

Setting up takes a few minutes: a parent creates the family, adds each child, and each child signs in. A guided setup walks you through it the first time, and you can run it again any time from Settings (Set up again).

1. Create the family

1. On this website choose Start free trial, or in the app tap I'm a parent › New family.
2. Enter a family name and pick your time zone. Your children's days start at midnight in this time zone.
3. Enter your name, email address and a password of at least 8 characters.

Your 14-day free trial starts straight away. The same email and password sign in to the apps and the web panel.

2. Find your family code

Every family gets a six-character family code, shown in Settings. Children type it to find your family. Capitals, spaces and dashes don't matter, so k7qx-2m works for K7QX2M. If the code has been shared too widely, choose New code: the old one stops working for new sign-ins, but nobody already signed in is signed out.

3. Add each child

1. On the Family page, choose Add a player.
2. Enter a display name (a first name or nickname is plenty) and a birthdate. The birthdate sets the number of hearts. If you'd rather not give the exact day, use the 1st of the birth month.
3. Choose a 4-digit PIN and an element. Your child can change their element and look later.

4. Children sign in

1. On the child's device, tap I'm a player.
2. Enter the family code and tap Find my family.
3. Tap your hero, then type your PIN.

The device remembers the family code. A wrong code, player or PIN gives the same general message on purpose, so a PIN can't be guessed by elimination.

Sharing devices

Child mode hands a parent's phone to a child. Set a 4-digit parent PIN in Settings first (you'll be asked for your password), then open the child's page and choose Hand to child. To take it back, tap the lock and enter the parent PIN.

The Account Switcher is for a tablet the children share. Once anyone in the family has signed in properly, Switch player moves to another account with a simple password such as 1234 or abc (capitals don't matter).

• If a child signed in, the switcher lists only the children. A parent can never be reached from a child's sign-in.
• If a parent signed in (including child mode), it lists that parent too.
• Set the passwords in Settings under Account Switcher passwords. Until one is set, the account's PIN works instead.

Co-parents: in Settings › Parents, create an invite for the other parent's email. No email is sent: share the link yourself. It works once and expires after 7 days.

The child's side

Camp is home: the hero in their element's colors, the hearts row, the manna loaves and the gold balance, all updating live. Below are the level and title with a renown bar, the current streak, the badges and today's quests. When hearts or manna run out, the hero looks weary and the camp says "Time for a snack and a stretch!" Being weary is never a punishment.

Quests lists today in time order with big check buttons. Tap a class to check it off; inside a chore pack, tap each chore. A quest that needs approval shows Waiting for a grown-up until a parent approves it, and the child can withdraw it while it waits. Breaks are marked Rest. When the last quest of the day is approved, an All quests done! celebration shows the streak and any new badge.

Shop sells potions and manna, gear (hats, weapons and magic items), outfits, familiars, looks and the family's real rewards. Items that match the hero's element are marked, but any hero can buy anything. Every purchase asks first.

Hero is the wardrobe: tap an owned item to wear it, or Change element & looks to restyle the hero.

Certificates is the child's wallet of real-life treats earned from quests. Use it asks a grown-up, who then marks it used.

Parent tools

Everything below is in the parent side of the apps and in the web panel.

Building the week

Open a child and choose Weekly schedule. Each item repeats on the weekdays you choose:

• Class: checked off as a whole.
• Chore pack: a group such as Morning Chores, with up to 20 chores checked off one by one. The pack's own reward is a bonus paid once when every chore is done.
• Break: shown on the day, never checked off and never rewarded.

For each item set the title, notes, days, start time, length and rewards (hearts in quarter steps, and gold). Turn on Needs a grown-up to approve to hold rewards until you approve. The editor shows how much each day can give.

• Templates: start from a ready-made week (Little Learners 5–7, Elementary Week 8–10, Middle Grades 11–13, two chore routines and Weekend Adventures), added to or replacing the current week.
• Skip on this date: removes one item from one day without changing the week.
• Copy schedule: copies a week to a brother or sister.
• Print quest chart (web panel): a one-page week with tick boxes for the fridge.

Rewards and certificates

Real rewards are treats children buy with gold, such as a trip for ice cream (1 to 1,000 gold). Claimed rewards wait for you to mark them Fulfilled, or Refund gold.

Certificates cost no gold. Write one once ("Free ice cream", "Pass on one chore") and attach it to any classes, chore packs or chores in the schedule editor. Each approved check-off gives the child a copy for their wallet. When they ask to use one, mark it Used or say Not today.

Approvals, ledger and reports

• Family dashboard: a card for each child with their hero, meters and anything waiting for you, plus This week: quests done, full days, streaks and gold in and out.
• A child's page: check off quests yourself (approved straight away), approve or undo today's check-offs, and edit the player.
• Approvals: every waiting check-off, reward and certificate in one place.
• Gold & ledger: every change to gold, hearts and manna. Pay or charge gold with a short note.
• Reports: over 4 weeks, 3 months, 12 months or all time, compare your children side by side, or open one child's consistency, usage and rewards charts.

Rules

The server keeps the official numbers, so every device shows the same hearts, manna and gold. "Today" always means today in the family's time zone.

The three meters

• Hearts and manna count in quarters and never go above their maximum. Gold never goes below zero.
• On a birthday the number of hearts goes up by one at midnight, without a refill.
• A new hero starts with full hearts and manna, 0 gold, their element's starter outfit, the Wooden Sword and the Glow Orb.

Checking off quests

• Quests are checked off on today's date, once each. A parent can approve a waiting check-off later; it counts for the day it was made.
• A quest needing approval gives nothing until a parent approves it. A parent's own check-off is approved at once.
• A child can withdraw their own waiting check-off. Only a parent can undo an approved one, on the same day; the rewards are taken back.
• Each day a child can earn up to 3 loaves of manna. Every class and chore pack is an equal share of the day (the chores in a pack split its share); finishing everything earns all 3.

Shop prices

Renown, levels, streaks and badges

Children earn 1 renown for every approved quest and 5 more for every full day (every quest approved). Each level needs 25 more renown than the last, through 50 levels from Apprentice to Legend.

Each full day adds 1 to the streak. A past day with quests that wasn't full resets it; a day with nothing scheduled neither adds nor breaks it, so weekends off are safe. Badges include First Steps, Full Day, Kindled (3-day streak), Week Warrior, Quest Seeker, Treasure Hunter, Patient Saver, Animal Friend, Unbroken (30 days), Quest Master and Champion.

Progress is worked out from history, so undoing a check-off also takes back its renown. Missing a day never costs anything except the current streak.

Subscription

One subscription covers every parent and child in the family on every device: monthly or annual. Every family starts with a 14-day free trial with no card.

• On the web: subscribe when you sign up or in the panel's Settings. Payments are handled by Stripe; your first charge is when the trial ends. Manage billing changes or cancels the plan.
• In the apps: subscribe from the parent area through the App Store or Google Play, and manage it in that store.
• If the trial ends without a subscription, children see a friendly "ask a parent" screen. Parents can still sign in, subscribe and manage the family. Nothing is deleted.
• Children's devices never show prices or purchase links.

Your family's information

HS Elementals stores your family's information on our server so it can be shared between your devices:

• Parents: name, email, password, and the optional parent PIN and switcher password (all stored scrambled).
• Children: only a display name, birthdate, PIN and optional switcher password (scrambled) and character choices. No email address.
• Game activity: schedules, check-offs, items, rewards, certificates and a ledger of every gold, heart and manna change.

There are no ads and no tracking, and the apps don't use your location, contacts, camera or microphone. Any parent can delete the whole family, a single child or their own account in Settings, at once and permanently. Read the privacy policy and how deletion works.