A private mathematics education · ages 4 to 18
From first counting to the edge of university. The clearest methods of the Russian and American traditions, the evidence behind every one of them, and a plain account of what your child has truly learned. Fifteen calm minutes a day.
The full app, free for 14 days. No account, nothing to install. After that, 100 founding families, by application, for the first year. Apply
Leo has three times as many stamps as Mira. Together they have 48. How many does Mira have?
Four equal units make 48, so one unit, Mira’s share, is 12.
The two traditions
Russia’s pupils rank among the best in the world on curriculum tests and only average on unfamiliar, applied problems. American schools are stronger at data, modeling and fractions as numbers; Russian schools go further in geometry, algebra and proof. On most of school mathematics the two go equally deep: 160 of 271 concepts in our comparison. We take each where the evidence favors it, and say which is which.
Comparing amounts before counting them. Every word problem drawn as parts and a whole. The equals sign as balance, and letters for unknowns long before algebra. A few minutes of mixed recall to open each session. Proof, for every child, from about thirteen.
Fractions placed on the number line, the single highest-leverage idea in school arithmetic. The meaning behind the sign rules. Data and probability through simulation and natural frequencies. Functions in several representations, and open modeling of real situations.
A worked example first, then half-worked, then the child alone. Explaining each step in one’s own words. Practice that is mixed and spaced, not massed. Bar models for word problems. Most of the method is here, and that is as it should be.
Sources: TIMSS 2019 (Russia 567 and 543, US 535 and 515 at grades 4 and 8); PISA 2018 (Russia 488). Concept counts computed from the Russian Math Atlas coverage data, 271 school concepts. Explore the Russian Math Atlas.
Three ways into each flagship lesson
Each of our 38 flagship lessons opens three ways. We lead with the one your child engages with most and always offer all three. These are not “learning styles”, an idea the research does not support; several representations help every child.
The other 233 school concepts begin as a guided brief, without the three lenses, and the app always says which you are looking at. More lessons are being written.
Three quarters is a point on the line, three of four equal steps from 0 to 1.
A recipe for four needs ¾ of a cup of flour. You are cooking for two. How much now, and how do you measure it?
34=3×14
Cut the unit into four equal parts. Three of them, laid end to end, reach three quarters of the way to 1. So ¾ is less than 1, and ⁴⁄₄ is exactly 1.
From about thirteen, every learner writes short justifications like this, gently checked.
The hallmarks
Like the assay mark on silver, a small stamp on every teaching choice tells you where it comes from. Open it and you see one sentence of why, and the strength of the evidence behind it.
Most of school mathematics has never been tested method against method. Where it has, we follow the evidence. Where it has not, we say so.
113 choices
61 choices
97 choices
Honest mastery
Every idea begins as unknown. Nothing is called secure on one good day. The shape of each mark carries its meaning, so “credited” can never be mistaken for “secure”.
0.8–2.6%
of the concepts our placement credited were not truly known, in three simulated scenarios of 1,000 learners each. Measured per learner, 3.6–10.1% of simulated children had at least one concept credited in error, about one in ten in the gappiest scenario. That is why every credit stays marked “not yet verified” and is checked in later warm-ups.
These figures come from a simulation with research-default parameters, not from real children, and they describe placement credit only, not the Secure mark. No child has yet completed a year with us. The founding year includes an outcome study.
The weekly brief
Each week, a few sentences in plain English: time spent, what is newly secure, the one idea in progress and why, what is still unknown, and one question to ask at dinner. Open any status to see the evidence behind it.
Your child sees exactly what you see. We write sooner only when something changes course.
Illustrative sample · not a real child
Week of 28 September
A steady week. Four sessions, one idea newly secure. Ask her where ¾ and ⅗ sit on a line, and which is larger.
We have not yet seen enough to judge subtraction with regrouping. It will appear in next week’s warm-ups.
A glimpse
A short warm-up of older ideas, one new idea, practice pitched so a child succeeds about three times in four, and a one-minute close. Then it stops.
Drawn by the app’s own components and visual models.
The alternatives, fairly
A great tutor is a person no software replaces. RSM is a strong weekly class for a child who enjoys a group. AoPS is the best route for a self-motivated child drawn to competition mathematics. We are the daily spine underneath any of them, and the honest record of what has been learned.
| Option | Format | Typical cost a year | What you learn about progress |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elite private tutor | One to one, weekly | $12,000–24,000+ per child | The tutor’s account |
| Russian School of Mathematics | Weekly class of about 12 | up to about $4,000 per child | Grades and teacher conversations |
| Mathnasium | Center sessions, 2–3 a week | $1,500–5,000 per child | Periodic assessments |
| Thinkster | App and a tutor, weekly | $1,170–2,340 per child | A dashboard and mastery map |
| AoPS online classes | Live online courses | $830–990 per child | Homework grades and feedback |
| Math Academy | Adaptive self-study | $588 per child | Course progress |
| 0 to 100 | Fifteen minutes a day at home, a weekly letter, a review each term | $2,400, the whole family | Secure, developing, unknown, and why, every week |
Prices checked 4 October 2026 and vary by location. Tutor rates: Private Prep (Aug 2026). RSM: Harvard Crimson (Oct 2025); RSM sends official prices on request. Mathnasium: MyEngineeringBuddy (Jul 2026). Thinkster, AoPS, Math Academy: their own pages. Yearly figures are our arithmetic on those prices: a tutor one hour a week for 40 weeks; Mathnasium ($150–500 a month) for ten months; AoPS two courses ($415–495 each); Thinkster one session a week for 52 weeks; Math Academy twelve months. Their prices are per child; ours covers every child in the family. A teacher offers a person; we offer daily practice and an honest record, and many families will want both.
The Founding Families
For the first year we are limiting membership to 100 families. The reason is practical: every family speaks with us before their child begins, and we are calibrating the mastery model on real learners before we widen access.
Questions
It is a method that draws on two traditions and marks which is which. The Russian tradition we use is a body of teaching ideas (Davydov, Kolmogorov, the math-circle culture), much of it brought to America by émigré teachers from across the former Soviet Union. It is not a state or its politics. We use the American tradition just as deliberately.
We do not know, and we will not claim it. No one can honestly promise admission. We can promise a secure foundation, a habit of explaining one’s reasoning, and a true record of what has been learned.
We designed against it. No streaks, leaderboards, coins or countdowns. Praise is for reasoning, never for being clever. When a child struggles, the system goes back to repair a foundation rather than pushing on, and the brief tells you.
For the method, it is on every hallmark, weak grades included. For the product itself there is none yet, because no child has completed a year with us. The founding year includes an outcome study, so that we can show you evidence about ourselves.
Your child’s name, answers and progress stay on your device. To improve the site we count how it is used: which pages are read, which buttons are pressed, how many sessions are finished and which ideas become secure. Those counts go to our own server and to Google Analytics, with no names, nothing typed, and no advertising features. If you request a founding place, we link that request to this browser’s visit counts, to learn what helped you decide. To switch this off in a browser, open this link.
Either. Many families will keep a teacher they value and use 0 to 100 as the daily practice and honest record underneath. If you stop something, it should be because the record shows you can.