Math is where homeschool plans go to die, because it is sequential. Miss one rung and everything above it wobbles, and a workbook cannot tell you which rung it was. Primer breaks every math skill into a ladder, finds the rung your student is actually on, and teaches it inside the things they love.
Each of these rests on learning science that has been replicated for decades. The studies, in plain language, are on the research page.
Intelligent tutoring systems that adapt to each student's pace and gaps raised scores by about two thirds of a standard deviation, moving a typical student from the 50th to the 75th percentile, and beat controls in 46 of 50 studies. One student at a time, never thirty.
Mastery learning averages half a standard deviation of gain, with the strongest effects for the weakest students. In math that is the whole game: a student who moves to fractions without place value is not behind, they are building on sand.
Spacing practice out beats cramming across 317 experiments, and recalling beats restudying. Math facts, in particular, have to be brought back days and weeks later to stick.
Addition and Subtraction, Counting and Cardinality, Math Facts, Place Value, Geometry, Measurement and Data, Fractions, Ratios and Proportions, Pre-Algebra, Word Problems, up through Calculus. Switch a skill on and Primer sequences it into lessons, each resting on the one before, with the typical grade level printed on the right of every row. Read down Fractions and it goes 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5.
Skills, paths, and curriculum →
The Starting Point Check finds where a student should begin a subject: eighteen adaptive questions, no timer, no score shown to the student. Units below the result are marked Tested Out. A student lost in fifth grade fractions is often missing a third grade rung, and the ladder shows you which one.
The Starting Point Check →
Theo loves baseball, so his equivalent fractions lesson opens in a dugout with a chocolate bar broken into pieces. A few slides later the fraction bars carry the idea on their own. Same objective, same exit ticket, a different world for every student. Charts, illustrations, and a hand-picked video where one fits.
The same lesson, twice →
Every lesson ends with a printable worksheet built from that lesson, addressed to the student, with their interests in the word problems and the answer key on the last page. Fill it out on paper or on an iPad with Apple Pencil.
See real worksheets →
Each exit ticket moves the skill's mastery number, weighted toward recent work, so a rough September does not hide a strong November. The Recurring Misconceptions report shows when a student misses questions the same way, with the correction in the words they saw. A Quick Update box takes a note like "focus more on fractions" and applies it.
How Primer measures progress →
At intake you decide whether lessons are checked against Common Core, NGSS, C3, or your state framework, and how strictly. The Curriculum tab shows a Standards Alignment panel for each student. Or leave it off and let the ladder be the standard.
The intake interview →Kindergarten counting and cardinality through high school calculus, in one place. Elementary, middle, and high school skills are all available to any student; the grade band is a filter on what you browse, not a limit on your student.
It can be. Intake asks whether lessons should be checked against Common Core, NGSS, C3, or your state framework, and how strictly. Every rung on a path also shows its typical grade level, so you can see where your student stands against a conventional sequence.
The Progress tab breaks it down per skill: a mastery percentage weighted toward recent exit tickets, a confidence number that says how much evidence is behind it, and every question they were asked. Primer does not call a skill mastered until three consistent exit tickets say so.
Yes. Switch on one math skill, or a whole subject, and nothing else. Many families use it exactly that way, as a tutor for the one thing that is not fine.
One free lesson, no account: their name, one thing they love, and one topic. Or start a free trial and let them find their starting spot.