> In my head, this looks more like a math circle or enrichment workshop than a school. The idea is a small group, maybe 6–8 students.
You're correct, this sounds more like an after-school math club.
> I loved olympiad-style problems. The non-trivial ones. The kind where you sit with a problem for an hour, try three wrong approaches, and then something clicks. That feeling. I’d like kids to experience that early.
Math Kangaroo holds a competition every year. Their question papers for the past several years are available for sale.
You can take a look at some of the questions from last year's exam and see if they fit into your categories of patterns, creative geometry, etc:
https://mathkangaroo.org/mks/practice/free-question-samples/https://www.thethinkacademy.com/blog/2025-math-kangaroo-real...
If so, you can base your math club on solving these problems, or analogous ones that you come up with yourself.
> The focus wouldn’t be speed or grades, but depth and alternative approaches.
You can use educational toys from the company Learning Resources. They help to provide materials that children can hold and manipulate in their hands, establishing a neural pathway to abstract thinking for the same concept.
For example, here is one that uses pegs and rubber bands to teach concepts in shapes, symmetry, angles, and fractions:
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Double-Sided-Assor...
> We’d explore [...] strategy, [...] maybe even some early economics and decision theory.
There are board game cafes where you can drop in to see the latest craze.
> If you were building this as an MVP: 1. Would you pilot a short 4–6 week program? 2. What age group would you target 3. How much curriculum do you design before you start?
Take a look at the Brain Quest Workbooks (8 book series) and get an idea of the general curriculum prescribed at each level Pre-K through Grade 6.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09D7ZJPG4
> 4. How important are credentials vs demonstrated ability?
There are many organizations that provide STEAM-oriented after-school enrichment classes to school children. You can contact them and see if you could work with them, offering your uniquely designed curriculum. You could build up your ability to teach while conducting the classes. At the same time, you could enroll in online classes for teacher training to build up your credentials.
> If you’ve started a math circle, tutoring program, micro-school or anything similar, I’d really appreciate hearing what worked, what didn’t, and what you wish you’d known at the beginning.
The skyrocketing cost of home insurance in Florida is causing some residents to sell their properties and relocate. https://www.newsweek.com/florida-
homeowners-relocating-insurance-crisis-cost-1893248 · Apr 24, 2024
My aunt endlessly researched all the options at Starbucks and then finally came up with this gold standard. (She writes out on a post-it for every visitor to her home and sticks it in their wallet so they can recite it in front of the barista.)
Cafe latte, tall, non-fat milk, one splenda. (This is fairly zero calorie.)
A stronger option is: Cafe latte, tall, an extra shot of espresso, non-fat milk, two splendas.
A quiet note of appreciation for Adam Grossman, one of the co-founders of Dark Sky. It's one thing to have an idea about a weather app, quite another to pursue it successfully within a small design agency and then make it polished enough over the years to sell it to a giant corporation like Apple. Even during that acquisition, Grossman went to bat for DarkSky's users, making sure that the API was kept live (for 2+ years running now). Post-acquisition, he has evidently become comfortable enough in a corporate environment to help evangelize the API's transition to an Apple-native SDK and Swift API. The creation of the REST API with a full mapping guide means that Grossman continues to bat for DarkSky API developers. The use of the native Swift API to create brand new Apple weather apps also appears to be well done. All-in-all, it has been a remarkable journey from a small, independent agency to a large corporate while keeping core values alive, a journey where many others have flamed out. An inspiration to all. Hats off to you, Grossman!
You're correct, this sounds more like an after-school math club.
> I loved olympiad-style problems. The non-trivial ones. The kind where you sit with a problem for an hour, try three wrong approaches, and then something clicks. That feeling. I’d like kids to experience that early.
Math Kangaroo is an international organization that promotes mathematical problem solving through logical thinking in children. https://mathkangaroo.org/mks/about-math-kangaroo/
> We’d explore patterns, [...] invariants, creative geometry, counting tricks,
Math Kangaroo holds a competition every year. Their question papers for the past several years are available for sale. You can take a look at some of the questions from last year's exam and see if they fit into your categories of patterns, creative geometry, etc: https://mathkangaroo.org/mks/practice/free-question-samples/ https://www.thethinkacademy.com/blog/2025-math-kangaroo-real... If so, you can base your math club on solving these problems, or analogous ones that you come up with yourself.
> The focus wouldn’t be speed or grades, but depth and alternative approaches.
You can use educational toys from the company Learning Resources. They help to provide materials that children can hold and manipulate in their hands, establishing a neural pathway to abstract thinking for the same concept. For example, here is one that uses pegs and rubber bands to teach concepts in shapes, symmetry, angles, and fractions: https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Double-Sided-Assor...
> We’d explore [...] strategy, [...] maybe even some early economics and decision theory.
There are board games that are excellent for teaching these concepts. Many of them have been awarded 'Game of the Year' and 'Mensa Select' awards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mensa_Select_recipient...
You can select almost any from this list but here are the ones I have seen in various after-school math clubs:
(A) Matching colors, shapes and sizes under constraints
1. Sequence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequence_(game)
2. Qwirkle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwirkle
3. Blokus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blokus
4. Gobblet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobblet
5. Azul https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azul_(board_game)
6. Rubik's Race https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXZ8B8B8
(B) Territory control
7. Hive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hive_(game)
8. Battle Sheep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Sheep
9. Reversi / Othello https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversi
10. Pylos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pylos_(board_game)
11. Santorini https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorini_(game)
(C) Path Algorithms
12. Tsuro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuro
13. Ticket to Ride https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Ticket_to_Ride_(board_game)
(D) Rules-based moves
14. Checkers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkers
15. Viking Chess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tafl_games
16. Stratego https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratego
17. Chi Shogi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_shogi
18. Five Crowns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Crowns_(card_game)
19. Flip 7 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DWGVM7RY
(E) Early Economics and Decision Theory
20. Catan Junior https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007N0KZ64
21. My First Stone Age https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CSJ7IKA
(F) Mathematical Concepts
22. Snakes and Ladders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_and_ladders
23. Proof! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C5TKRL8
24. SkyJo https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XZ9K244
25. SET https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00000IV34
26. Prime Climb https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PG9590G
27. Pentago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentago
There are board game cafes where you can drop in to see the latest craze.
> If you were building this as an MVP: 1. Would you pilot a short 4–6 week program? 2. What age group would you target 3. How much curriculum do you design before you start?
Take a look at the Brain Quest Workbooks (8 book series) and get an idea of the general curriculum prescribed at each level Pre-K through Grade 6. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09D7ZJPG4
I expect you would design at least as much curriculum as you need to match the Common Core State Standards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core
> 4. How important are credentials vs demonstrated ability?
There are many organizations that provide STEAM-oriented after-school enrichment classes to school children. You can contact them and see if you could work with them, offering your uniquely designed curriculum. You could build up your ability to teach while conducting the classes. At the same time, you could enroll in online classes for teacher training to build up your credentials.
> If you’ve started a math circle, tutoring program, micro-school or anything similar, I’d really appreciate hearing what worked, what didn’t, and what you wish you’d known at the beginning.
1. The Math Revolution: The number of American teens who excel at advanced math has surged. Why? | Peg Tyre | March 2016 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/03/the-mat... https://archive.ph/oJK4D
2. Raising Problem Solvers podcast hosted by Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) https://artofproblemsolving.com/blog/podcasts/raising-proble...
3. Let's teach for mastery -- not test scores | Sal Khan, founder Khan Academy | TED Talk, November 2015 https://www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_let_s_teach_for_mastery_n...
(Disclaimer: Not affiliated in any way to any of the organizations mentioned above.)
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