Math that explains itself
Zearn teaches the lesson before it checks answers. A digital lesson starts with fluency practice (in grades 1 to 5 that is Number Gym, which gets harder as your kid improves), moves to a short video with an on-screen teacher, then guided practice with visual models, and ends with the Tower of Power: a short set of problems that must all be right to unlock the next lesson.
Lessons are grouped into units called Missions, and there are more than 1,000 of them across K-8. The approach runs from concrete to pictorial to abstract. Kids move blocks around before they write the numbers.
Skip the paper and your kid skips half the program
Every lesson includes paper-and-pencil problems. Print the student notes, or keep a notebook next to the laptop.
At home, start at your kid's grade
- If the school uses it: ask the teacher which Mission your kid is on, and keep going from there.
- If the school doesn't: sign up for a free family account at zearn.org and start at your kid's grade. Drop back a Mission if the first lessons feel hard.
- Sit nearby for the Tower of Power the first few times. That is where the frustration happens, and where the Boosts help most.
Zearn is a nonprofit, founded in 2012. About one in four US elementary students use it, and Evidence for ESSA rates it Strong based on a randomized trial of more than 10,000 students. Family resources come in English and Spanish.
