Daily Practice at Home

Based on our early pilot at Alpha School, we estimate the core curriculum takes about 20 hours of practice. Each child’s pace varies, and families can choose a routine that works for them.

Choose a routine that fits

A short session can be a useful starting point. Choose a comfortable place, keep the iPad and Apple Pencil charged, and take a break when your child needs one. There is no fixed required session length or practice frequency, and no calendar deadline for finishing the curriculum within that estimate. Your purchased learning-access dates are separate.

The daily goal is a way to mark effort, not a timer that ends a session. Your child can stop before reaching it or keep learning after reaching it. When stopping, use the app's exit controls and read any warning about unfinished work; see Your child's first session.

The daily XP goal

A child's goal is met when server-awarded XP reaches their daily XP goal in one Family-local day. Simply opening the app or practicing without earning enough XP does not extend a streak.

Family owners and admins can open Settings → Learning settings to change the Family's default Daily XP goal and Practice days, then choose Save. Timezone is in Settings → Family & account. A child's individual settings may override the Family defaults. The learning day and streak follow the Family time zone, not necessarily the time zone on the iPad.

Lessons, reviews, and warmup can contribute awarded XP. Replaying content does not necessarily award the same XP again. See Daily goal & streaks and How XP works for the rules.

Weekdays and off days

The default goal days are Monday through Friday, with weekends off. Check your saved settings if your Family or child uses a different schedule.

• Goal day: Meeting the goal extends the streak. If the day ends without the goal being met, the streak breaks.
• Off day: Missing the goal does not break the streak. Meeting the goal on an off day still extends it.

On a scheduled practice day, the current streak can show 0 until today’s goal is met. That alone does not mean the previous sequence or saved learning history was lost; check today’s XP alongside it.

Practice days are configurable streak settings, not a required course attendance schedule. A missed goal is not a reason to rush through work or avoid taking a needed break.

What you can see in the dashboard

Open Children, then select your child. The current report shows:

• Current streak and best streak.
• Today: XP earned toward the daily goal, or Done when the goal is met.
• Writing speed: legible letters per minute, with a trend chart for the selected period when measurements are available.
• Curriculum progress, per-letter attempt counts, and a day-by-day curriculum timeline.
• Last active and total awarded XP when available.

The writing-speed chart measures legible letters per minute; it is not a separate legibility-score trend. A new profile may have no speed data yet. Curriculum “days” describe the learning sequence, not a promise to finish in that many calendar days.

These reports reflect saved server records. They are not a live view of every unfinished stroke on the iPad. If something looks wrong, see Progress looks wrong.

RelatedPerformance metrics glossaryUnderstand writing-speed measurements and the other report metrics.Read more

RelatedBilling and renewalLearning-access dates and what happens at expiry.Read more