Spell Quest
The school spelling test is "hear it, write it". So Spell Quest's whole design pushes from recognising a word towards producing it unaided.
Recognition first, production for mastery
New words start gently: multiple-choice ("tap the correct spelling") gets roughly a one-in-four share. As a word climbs the boxes, multiple-choice fades to a 10% cameo and the production formats take over, because recognising necessary among misspellings is much easier than writing it, and only the second one is tested at school.
The formats
| Game | Skill |
|---|---|
| Adventure / Word Focus | A mix of all formats, weighted to tricky words (Word Focus targets one tapped word) |
| Sound It Out | Hear the word (recorded AU voice), type it. The closest thing to the school test |
| Word Builder | Tap jumbled letters in order |
| Fill the Gaps | Type the hidden interior letters (about 45% are masked, never the first or last) |
| Tricky Twins | Homophones in context: their/there/they're, your/you're, its/it's: tap the one that fits the sentence |
| Handwriting Lab (new) | Hear and write words from the selected built-in lists by finger or pencil, with sentence context for tricky homophones; confirm what the reader detected, then correct a miss by copying and recalling it in handwriting. The tile remains visible but says Unavailable when handwriting recognition is unsupported |
| Grammar Guardians | Conventions: was/were, a/an, saw/seen, plus "tap the sentence that is written correctly" for capitals, commas, question marks, speech marks and apostrophes |
| Rocket Round / Beat the Clock | Quick-fire recognition against the clock (tap formats only, so typing is never rushed) |
| Boss Battle / Tricky Rematch | Weakest words only; Rematch replays the round's misses |
| Test Day | A school-style practice test on a Family Word Pack: listen, type, check, with all feedback saved for the end. Optional 25-second-per-word school pace. Nothing counts against the child's words or rewards, no result history is stored, and misses flow straight into a normal practice round |
Word Cards, hints and Fix-it
A growing set of list words carries a hand-written Word Card: a child-friendly definition, an example sentence in Australian English, the part of speech and one spelling-pattern clue. In typed rounds a lightbulb hint reveals the meaning first and a pattern clue second, without ever showing the whole spelling. A word solved with help gets encouragement and appears under Needs another look, but does not advance mastery or earn XP, coins or streak credit. The same card teaches inside Fix-it and on the results screen, so a miss always ends in meaning, not just a red mark.
Miss a word in untimed play and it appears correctly on screen for your child to copy once before play continues, with its Word Card above the copy box when one exists. Copying a visible word is the remediation; the engine re-tests real recall by scheduling that word again in a later session. Grammar items skip Fix-it (there's no single word to copy) and instead show the correct answer highlighted.
Results group each round's words by what to do next (Hear it and try again, Needs another look, Ready), with replay and one-tap practice on any tricky word.
Handwriting Lab runs ten-word rounds using the same recorded teacher voice as Sound It Out. The child first confirms the reader's transcription, then a miss requires a legible handwritten copy followed by one more handwritten attempt from memory. Custom Word Pack words stay out until matching recorded audio exists. Raw handwriting is not saved or synced.
Word lists
Every new player starts with a national Year N (Core) list. In the grown-ups area, a parent can create a private family Word Pack, paste up to 40 words, choose a year band and assign it to one or more players. Assigned packs use the same mastery engine and toggles as core words. Custom words use the device's own voice automatically; packs never appear to another household.
Why the Word Garden shows gems, not words
Progress needs to be visible without being copyable. A list of words on screen would let the spelling be read off during play. So each word is a coloured gem (colour = mastery box), and tapping a gem starts a focused round on that word.