Our Return Policy
We offer a 15 day money back guarantee for Web-App purchases, minus 3.5% for credit card fees.
What is not returnable:
PDFs
coins
physical books
Before you purchase, we recommend you sample the Web-App to make sure it's right for you.
To get a refund, go to your Order History on your dashboard.
General Questions for Teachers, Tutors, & Parents
No.
This is not a subscription; purchases are for licenses based on duration. The license duration is as follows: you have one year from the purchase
date to assign a student to an app, and then the student has one year
to use the app. Three weeks before a license expires, a notice will be
displayed on your teacher dashboard. If you would like to renew, simply purchase another license and assign the student to the
app. All data will automatically transfer.
No. All teacher dashboards will include a free working app for any app purchases. This also applies to any PDFs purchased.
For example, if you purchased
five web-app licenses and assigned them to five students, you will have a working app on your dashboard. You will have access to
the app from your dashboard if there
is at least one student assigned app that has not expired. All PDFs do not expire and will always be available to you.
You will have one year, from the date of purchase, to assign your licenses to your students. Once assigned, your students' licenses will expire one year from
the date of assignment. For example, if you purchased 25 licenses and immediately assigned 5 licenses to 5 students, then those licenses
will expire one year from the date you purchased the licenses. If 364 days from your purchase, you assign the remaining 20 to 20
other students, then their
expiration date will be one year from that date you assigned them (which will be one year plus the 364 days from the purchase date).
To assign an app to a student, open your Teacher Dashboard. Under the app will be an orange button "Assign Students to this App".
When you select that button you will see a drop down list of your students from your classroom. Simply select the student. Once
selected, they will have the app available on their Student Dashboard.
If there is no orange button, that means that you do not have any licenses available to assign.
To get to your student’s dashboard , first log out of your account by selecting "log out" in the pulldown menu in
the upper right corner. Next, select to log in (in the upper right corner). You’ll see a pop-up window with a choice to log in as a student
or a teacher. Select the student and log on with the student's username and password. If you don’t remember this
login information, go to your teacher dashboard and select your classroom. You’ll see the list of your students with
their login information.
Note that this information can be printed out from your classroom page so you can give the
log-on information to your students.
For many apps, your student will earn coins as they play, which can be spent in the "fun zone", on the Student Dashboard.
As an added incentive, or if your student is using an app that does not award coins, your account comes with 25 free
coins for you to give to your student; additional coins can be purchased.
To give your student coins, go to your Teacher Dashboard, and then open your classroom.
Then select the button "Award Coins".
Many of our apps collect data as the student does the activities.
To see the progress, go to your Teacher Dashboard, then, under
the app, select the button "View All Student-App Info".
Then, find the student from the list, and select the "Show Progress" button.
You will then see an overview of the data, the attempts, the amount answered correctly, wrong, and the percent correct.
You can also see the details, where you will be able
to see exactly how your student answered the questions.
If a student is no longer using their web-app, you can assign it to another student. If the web-app is the kind that expires,
the new student will be able to use the app for the duration of the license.
Absolutely! Whether you're supplementing after school or homeschooling, our teaching tools can help you. Instead of a classroom,
you'll create just one student account for your child. You'll be able to do everything that a teacher can do such as monitor progress and give incentive
coins to your child.
You do not need a separate account for your personal needs. If your role is only as a teacher (not an admin), if you purchase
licenses with your account, they will go to your personal account. Your dashboard will keep your roles separate. Also, if you are a teacher who is on a
teacher list for multiple schools or institutions, they will all be listed separately on your dashboard (as long as you use the same email for all institutions).
Your school will have one student list which includes all students that you or other teachers from your school entered. This
is done so that if a student has more than one teacher, they only have one account. Note that this secure list is for your school only, other schools will
not have access to your school's student list. You will build your classroom from this list. Your classroom is not shared with other teachers.
General Questions for School Administrators
General PO Information
- Who can submit a PO: Schools (public, charter, and private)
- Payment: Net 30, check or via PayPal, USD only
- Returns: Licenses may be returned within 15 days of purchase for full refund, via PayPal, minus 3.5% credit card fees.
- Overdue Payments: We hold the right to suspend any accounts that are in arrears.
Steps to Submit a Purchase Order & Assign Licenses to Teachers
1. Create an account on our site using your school's email as your username. Select the role "Admin". If you are also a teacher who would use the apps as well as assign
apps to other teachers, you should also select "Teacher",
you will have two roles. Note that if you are a teacher only purchasing for yourself, you will not be able to purchase with a PO and would not be an "Admin",
your role should be "Teacher" only.
2. Once your email is validated, log in. You will see your Admin Dashboard. From the admin menu (under your school's name), select "Get App Quote". Then, for each app you want to purchase, specify the quantities and hit "submit". A quote will be created for you to print out or save.
3. To submit a PO, email the Purchase Order along with either a PDF of the quote or the quote ID (top right of the quote) so that we know how to process the order.
4. Once we process your order, the apps will be on your Admin Dashboard, you'll be emailed a notice when this is done. The email you
provided for billing, when you created your account, will receive
an invoice; the invoice will also be available on your dashboard - select "Invoices" from the left side of the Admin Menu in your Admin Dashboard. From there
you can view, print and pay the invoice.
5. From your Admin Dashboard, add your teachers (or parents if the order is for homeschoolers in your district)
to your teacher list, and then assign the apps as needed. To do this, on your Admin Menu in your Admin Dashboard, select "Teacher List". From
there you should add all teachers that you will assign apps to. To do this, simply select the button "Add Teacher to Your List". In the status,
you can see if they're registered. If they are registered, you can then assign apps to them. Otherwise, you will have to wait until they
register. Note that once you add them to your teacher list, an email will be sent to them with instructions on how to register. Once they
register, you will be notified via email so that you will know you can assign apps to them.
6. To assign the apps, go to your Admin Dashboard, and scroll down to the License Table. Next, select the buttons on
the right to "Assign or Reassign Teacher". If your teacher's name is not present in the drop down menu, then your teacher has either
not yet created an account or used a different email when creating their account. Once you select the teacher, they will see the app on their Teacher Dashboard. And your job is done!
Books are only available from retailers, such as Amazon.com.
If your institution is in New York State and you have tax exempt status,
please email your NYS tax exempt status letter. We will mark your
account as sales tax exempt and any purchases made via our site will not include sales tax.
No. All apps or PDFs purchased will also be available, at no charge, to the teacher on the teacher's dashboard.
For web-apps that expire after a year, the teacher will be able to access the free app on the dashboard as long as there is at least one
student assigned app that has not expired.
If, for some reason, a student no longer needs a web app (license), the license may be transferred to another student. Note
that if the app expires, the new student will have access to the app for the remainder of the life of the license.
No, you only need to enter the teachers to whom you will be assigning licenses. The teachers will add the students.
Note that the students added will be in one list for your school. This way one student can have several teachers, which is a common situation.
Web-App Questions & Troubleshooting
Our apps will run on any device that uses a browser. This includes tablets, mobile phones,
PCs, Macs, and Chromebooks.
Yes, in order to run the apps, you will need to be connected to the internet.
Even though the web apps will scale to the size of a mobile phone, due to the size limitations, we do not recommend that they be used.
This, of course, is ultimately up to your preference. Our Arcade games are, however, made to be enjoyed on mobile phones since we want to encourage students
to use the coins they've earned on their devices.
Browsers save files in cache so loading will take less time when you open the app in the future.
Unfortunately, this can cause problems if the browser is updated, a cached file becomes corrupt, or when a change is made to the web app.
Some files may update, while others don't, which can cause the app to not
load or, if it does load, it may not operate properly. Your browser needs to be told to do a complete reload (not the same as a refresh).
There are a few ways to make your browser reload all web pages.
For Chrome and Edge
1. Do a reload by pressing the keyboard keys: shift, ctrl, R; note that you press the keys in that order, holding them down at the same time.
2. If #1 above does not work, press the function key F12. You will see developer information either on the bottom or side of your screen. Then press the refresh button on the browser (the little
circle with the arrow). The web app should refresh with a complete reload, and then you can then 'x' out of the developer window.
3. If you tried the above and still are having problems, then you may need to clear parts of your browser's cache. To do this, open your browser,
then type CTRL, SHIFT, Delete (at the same time). This will bring up a window such as the one below.
Next, select to clear cached images and files,
as shown. Make sure all other
boxes are not checked.
For Other Browsers
You will have to do a "reload web page" for your browser,
note that this is different from a "refresh". If you don't know how to do this, you can try the above for Edge and Chrome.
If that doesn't work, you should do a search on how to reload a website for the browser you're using. If you are unable to
do that, then you may have to clear your browser's cache (as a last resort). See your browser's instructions on how to do that.
Sometimes browser settings are set in a way that won't allow our HTML5 apps to open. For troubleshooting Chrome,
click here.
Note that Chrome and Edge use the same engine and often act in the same way.
If you followed the recommendations and the apps still won't open, we recommend using the Firefox browser.
Get Firefox.
Mobile phones require that the ringer is used as a mute button. To get sound, please make sure your ringer is on and that
your device is not muted. If you believe your ringer is on and you're still not getting sound, use headphones. If you're getting sound with
headphones, then your device is muted.
If you have multiple apps open, there may not be enough memory to handle the functions of the app. Please close all open apps and then
reopen the web app. If it's still not right, turn your device completely off and then turn it back on (you should see a black screen with the Apple logo). If
that doesn't work, then you should clear the browser data.
To clear your browser data, first close this site on your browser. Then follow the directions for your browser to clear the cache and website data.
If you're using Safari, you can do this by opening Settings, scroll down to find Safari, then
you can either click on "Clear History and Website Data", or you can clear the data for our site only by scrolling down to "Advanced" > Website Data > find
blastofftolearning.com > swipe left to get the "Delete" button. Finally, reopen this site and then open the webapp.
Reading Program Questions
Once you purchase a program (or any web-app or PDF from this site), it will be available on your dashboard.
The apps are web-based, which means that they run from your browser and downloading to your computer is not necessary.
Note that you will need to be connected to the internet to run the apps.
If your child has an average or above average IQ, you should first try Blast Off to Reading. If you child is less
mature, and/or has learning difficulties (other than dyslexia), you may want to start with the I Can Fly Reading Program. Both programs
start with phonemic awareness, however, Blast Off to Reading is faster paced, covers more material (more rules, sounds and some ELA),
and is more difficult.
To teach to a classroom, we recommend using the lesson slides for the reading program you're using. You can use a Smart Board, to present the lessons.
Then you can use the program's app to review prior lessons using
the online flash cards and demonstrate word building, with the new sounds taught,
using the letter tiles (also review sounds from previous lessons). Your students should do the exercises from the book with you present.
Lastly, your students should do the activities in the web-app (at the end of the lesson, it will tell you which activities to do).
When the students are doing their lesson-based
activities, that's your time to give attention to those in need. From your teacher dashboard, you can view the students' progress metrics, to see which
lessons need more practice and instruct those students to play the activities for those lessons.
During this time, you could work with students one-on-one, going over the flash cards and using the letter tiles.
The programs are designed to build up on previous sounds and rules so that a student is not expected to know a sound or rule
if it wasn't yet taught. Thus, skipping around is not recommended. If, however, you're only using our programs as a supplement
to another program, then skipping around is fine.
The programs address both reading and spelling, since the two do go hand-in-hand. Note that the I Can Fly Reading Program does
not emphasize spelling as much as Blast Off to Reading, however, the activities in the I Can Fly Program do contain word building with
sounds and a spelling activity. The progress metrics will show the spelling score for the spelling activity.
Once the long vowel rules are taught, then students should begin reading 15 to 20 minutes a day with a proficient reader using our side-by-side method.
Read more about our side-by-side method.
This is very important as it will provide the bridge from decoding to fluency.
The OG approach can benefit any student learning to read. Students who are not dyslexic who use the OG approach will be better decoders and spellers. This is
because they will be taught all sounds and rules and will be able to decode words that they've never heard before. The OG approach isn't just phonics, it's a
combination of phonics mixed with rules and exceptions, and it's taught in a systematic, cumulative manner with a lot of review.
Read more about the Orton-Gillingham approach.
Before a student becomes fluent in reading, they must first learn to decode words. When they have aquired enough decoding
skills to read (usually after they learn the long vowel rules in our reading programs) they can begin to read books. This is
what will bridge the gap from decoding to fluency.
Read more about our side-by-side method.
In 2016, when our apps were first made available, we were able to offer our reading program apps as a courtesy
by subsidizing the cost with the sales from the books. In 2023, printing costs and retailer fees
significantly increased. In addition, costs to maintain and host our software also increased. Consequently,
while reading program apps remain available, we are no longer able to subsidize the cost
of the apps and offer them at no charge.
Note that any advertising that indicated the apps were available at no charge were
eliminated one year prior to when charges went into effect, which is the amount of time
considered for the lifetime for a consumable workbook. In addition, the interior of all books
were also changed to reflect the new policy, however, older books may be in circulation
and may say otherwise. Regardless, the no-charge apps are not available.
Note that all changes are in alignment with our Terms & Conditions. To read more, regarding app duration licenses as specified in our terms and
conditions, go to Terms for Web-Apps via Book Purchases.
If you have an older copy of the book, the book's instructions may indicate that there is a PDF for the flash
cards available on our website. However, the PDF has not been available for a number of years. If you've seen
information that the PDF is available somewhere else besides the book, please let us know where, so it can be removed.
An electronic version of the flash cards, for every reading program, is included with the web-app. For Blast Off to Reading,
a hard copy is also available
for purchase, click here.