Asking about a lesson

This is deliberate and it matters. The heading says so, the example question says so, and the box sits closed at the very bottom of the lesson, past all the work, where a child working through a lesson will not meet it.

The reason is not tone. Anything a child typed would be a child’s personal information going to a company outside Cogito, which the law governs and which the companies that provide this kind of answer forbid in their own rules. So the feature is addressed to an adult and kept where an adult will find it.

It knows which lesson you are on, so you do not have to explain the topic. The example question in the box is a fair guide to the kind of thing it answers well:

1. “My child keeps getting this wrong the same way — what am I not explaining well?”
2. “Why does this method work?” — when you can do the sum but cannot say why.
3. “What should they know before this lesson?” — when a lesson seems to be landing on nothing.
4. “Another way to explain this?” — when the lesson’s way is not the way your child thinks.

You do not need to be able to do the math yourself to ask any of those. That is rather the point of it.

1. Sign in, and open any lesson.
2. Scroll to the bottom and tap Stuck? Ask about this lesson to open the box.
3. Type your question. Up to about 600 characters — a short paragraph.
4. Send it, and the answer appears underneath.

1. It does not remember. Each question stands on its own. You cannot ask “and what about the next one?” and have it know what you meant — say the whole question each time.
2. Nothing you type is kept. Not by the app, not in our database, not in our records. The honest answer to “what do you keep of what I wrote about my child” is nothing at all.
3. It is not a person. It can be confidently wrong. If an answer does not match the lesson in front of you, trust the lesson.

Around 25 questions a day for the whole family. That is generous for its purpose — it is for the moments when you are stuck helping, not something to work through a chapter with.

If you reach the limit it says so, and it resets the next day. Nothing else stops working.

1. During your free week: yes, in full.
2. With a membership: yes.
3. Signed out, or after the free week with no membership: the box explains that it is part of a membership and offers to show you what one costs.

The membership chapter covers what that costs.