About

Home education shapes what we make

We have home-educated our children throughout their education so far, with a brief period of flexi-schooling. Learning alongside them has shaped our understanding of what families need: clear explanations, space to explore, and worthwhile challenges learners can approach at their own pace.

We design our courses for curious learners, families and independent study, and test ideas with our own children as we go.

Curiosity, understanding and problem-solving

The emphasis is on understanding, problem-solving and curiosity: trying things, spotting patterns, asking why, and gradually building deeper ideas from simple examples.

We want learning materials to feel approachable enough to begin, but interesting enough to lead somewhere worthwhile.

Daria and Michael

Sumthing Else is created by Daria and Michael, with plenty of testing and feedback from our own children.

Both of us have PhDs in Mathematics and experience of university teaching.

Our academic work informs the mathematics, while our experience home educating our children shapes how we make the learning clear, flexible and welcoming.

More than routine exercises

There is no shortage of worksheets and worked examples online. What can be harder to find is guidance that helps an adult support a child’s thinking: what questions to ask, when to offer a hint, and how to help them move forward without simply giving them the answer.

Young learners need more than understanding and fluency with mathematical operations. They also need to learn how to approach problems and how to learn: how to make a start, notice what is happening, choose a strategy, and reflect on whether it worked.

These transferable skills reach beyond mathematics and STEM. They build clarity of thought, systematic and structured reasoning, and the ability to be creative while still working towards a purpose.