What it actually feels like
to be a Mathemagician.
At school, mathematics usually arrives finished. The rule is in the book, the equation is in the question, and the job is to use it.
Outside school it never arrives like that. Somebody had to notice the pattern and find the rule. Somebody had to look at a messy real situation and decide which equation to write. Those two things — finding a rule, and making one — are what mathematicians actually do, and most students never get to try either.
The Explorations are two short courses for Grades 6 to 8 that let a student do both. Each one is sixteen sessions, and every session is a new problem, begun and finished in ninety minutes. No chapter carries over from one week to the next.
Out of Reach is investigation. A pattern you can count by hand, until the case you want is too big to count. Then you find the rule hiding in the small cases, and work out why it must be true. The answers are exactly right.
The Mathematics Inside is modelling. A real situation with no equation in it. You build one, check it against the facts, then run it forward until it says something impossible — and find the guess that caused it. The answers are never exactly right, only good enough, and the skill is knowing where.
Take Out of Reach first if you can. The algebra the second course uses is built in the first.
| Course | Sessions | Per student |
|---|---|---|
| Out of Reach · Investigation | 16 × 90 minutes | $750 |
| The Mathematics Inside · Modelling | 16 × 90 minutes | $750 |
One payment per course. No subscription. Groups of four, ninety minutes a week, online. Early cohorts keep the price they joined at, permanently.
No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. Students who do these courses tend to find their school mathematics easier afterwards, because they have stopped being frightened of it — but that is a side effect, not the promise.
The mixing works in both directions. The older student reaches further; the younger one often sees more freshly, because they have fewer methods to reach for and so are willing to just look at the problem. Every session starts with something anyone in the group can draw or count.
Because these are the years when there is still time. From Grade 9 the examination years take over, and a course like this becomes one more thing to fit in. In Grades 6 to 8 it can simply be enjoyed.
Out of Reach finds rules that are already there, and the answers are exactly right. The Mathematics Inside makes rules for real situations, and the answers are only ever good enough — the skill is knowing where they stop working. A student who does both finds out which kind of thinking they enjoy more.
They miss one problem, not a chapter. Every session is complete in itself, so the next week starts fresh.
Tell us your child’s year and what they think about mathematics right now — including if the answer is "nothing good." We will tell you honestly which of these is worth their time, or whether none of them is.