The word families page is great! I'll have to sit my daughter down with it today.
I should probably bite the bullet and get comfortable enough with javascript to take your approach. Here are some pico-8 demos I made with similar ideas:
In the Factors Demo, could you change the degree when you paint the next star? Maybe even change the degree between the factors the same as the first one. I think that might look a little nicer.
I think I know what you mean. The factors are drawn as a tree, and the way things are drawn now, it's possible for the line segment drawn for a child to go partway along the line segment drawn for its parent. Do you mean that I should rotate the children slightly so that this sort of alignment doesn't happen?
I should probably bite the bullet and get comfortable enough with javascript to take your approach. Here are some pico-8 demos I made with similar ideas:
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=3846
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=3259
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=3136