For the child with ADHD or autism who will not sit down with schoolwork
We build a world around what your child loves and turn their schoolwork into challenges inside it, all written to the Australian Curriculum.
Families already do their whole school week with us.
Our mission
Your child is already capable of amazing things. Too often, school buries it. We start with what they love. Curiosity does the rest.
Lessons about what they love. Learning that feels like theirs.
The planning and the paperwork, done. More time with them.
Reef
Whitehaven
Daintree
Lord Howe
Blue Mountains
Snowy MountainsAdventurer mode
Every week a new region opens on your child's map. Every place on it is a challenge, and each one is a short story built around what they love.
Adventurer mode: your child's side
Five screens from the child's side of the app.
Pick things to change.
Everyday
Explorer
ScientistYour child draws themselves: hair, outfit, hat, a tool to carry. That character is the one who goes on every trip.
SnowyA new region opens every week. The red pin is today's challenge.
Pouch Pelican is coming with you!
A new crew mateEvery challenge starts with a chest, and a new crew mate jumps out to come along.
A ranger stops beside you at the rocks. She says a tiny animal lives in the gaps between them. It is the mountain pygmy-possum.
People once thought it had died out. But in 1966, a live one was found at a ski resort.
A short story they are part of. The lesson is what they need to finish it.
Level 2 to Level 3
Level 2
Level 3Every answer levels a crew mate up, and they change at every level.
They are in the story
Drawn once, then in every story they go on.
Adventurer mode: built around what they love
Each lesson starts with a problem, and the lesson is how your child solves it. These were made for a boy who loves travel and nature, so his week is a trip through Indonesia, and the villain is Mr Sneakenhausen, a vain tourist whose plans always go wrong. If your child loves trains, cars or bus timetables, we build the same curriculum around those instead. Studies of autistic children found they learn more when lessons use their special interest.1 Press play to hear one, a 15 minute lesson told in under a minute.
Summary · a 15 minute lesson in under a minuteYou are at a giant mine in Papua. A geologist shows you a jar of copper powder. But the villain, Mr Sneakenhausen, is here too.
“Copper? Brown, boring, and everywhere. Gold is treasure. Copper is rubbish!”
And he tips it into the bin.
Is copper rubbish? Peel open Mr Sneakenhausen's camera cord: inside is shiny copper wire, carrying the electricity. Copper is in the wires in your walls, your phone and every car.
“In one year, this mine dug up about 53 tonnes of gold, and 680 thousand tonnes of copper.”
Gold is so rare it could never wire the world. Copper is common, so there is enough for every wire. Being common makes it useful.
“Copper is treasure? My copper!”
So in he dives, head first, to get it back.
“Mine! All mine!”
He adds 9 and 8 and gets 7. Where did the ten go?
Maths: carrying the ten
His sign says his beanies are cheapest. Are they?
Maths: comparing big numbers
He writes that the lake has "terned" brown.
English: spelling the er sound
Adventurer mode: one challenge up close
A challenge is a problem your child meets on the trip, and the lesson is what they need to solve it. Trying a problem before being taught leads to deeper understanding.2 Every screen is read aloud, which helps children who find reading hard understand more,3 and a voice tutor is there to ask if you want one.
But rock is very hard, and nobody watched these rocks break.
So how did these big rocks get broken into piles? The ranger asks if you can work it out.
How ice cracks rock
Melted snow runs into a thin crack in a rock. On a cold night, the water in the crack freezes. The ice takes more room than the water did.
One cold night is not enough to break a big rock. To answer it with the ranger, you need every step.
Drag the steps into order, first at the top.
Now you know how ice broke the rocks. The gaps between the broken pieces are where the possums sleep under the snow.
So ice made the possum's home.
A short lesson inside the story, in words, pictures and sometimes a video. Stories are remembered better than plain explanations,4 and words with pictures better than words alone.5
Questions on what they learnt, with a hint when they are stuck. Recalling what you learnt makes it last longer than reading it again.6
A task away from the screen that uses what they learnt.
A question to think over or talk about with you. Explaining an idea out loud deepens understanding.7
They drag, sort, match, plot and draw their answers, and the question changes to fit what is being learnt.
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The app, free for every family
Other providers charge for registering, planning and keeping a record. Here they are free.
We write the plan your state asks for, as a Word document to send in. Already registered? Skip it.
Week by week, written to the Australian Curriculum.
Write a note or add a photo. We suggest the curriculum codes it covers, so your record builds up as you go.
Name a topic. We recommend lessons and videos from Scootle and other Australian sources, for your child's year.
Say what your child is learning and what they love, and print the worksheet that comes back. Try the worksheet generator
Our founding families left other packages. Now every subject, every day, runs through their child's map.
What it costs
Start with the free app. Adventurer mode starts with a free trial, so you see it work for your child before you pay.
The app
Free
Free, with no end date. Use it on its own, or alongside Adventurer mode.
Everything to run your homeschool:
Adventurer mode
$49.95 a week
Free trial first. We look at what your child is strong in and what they find hard, then make their first two lessons free.
Everything in the free app, plus:
Came to Australia at 13 with no English, worked in corporate finance and as a software engineer, taught 150 students at university, and was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. Read the full story
Founding families: second round, open now
We are looking for two more families who want a say in what we build next. They get Adventurer mode for less, and work with us closely.
What you get
What we ask
Tell us about your child and what you are after. We reply to everyone, and if it looks like a fit we will offer you a place.
More studies on the same ideas, for anyone who wants to read further.
