STEM
MathCircle
Pass-and-play multipeer math circle for 2 to 4 kids on a single iPad. Rotating Scribe / Checker / Proposers table operationalizes cooperative math problem solving. 60 hand-curated circle problems. Ages 9-14.
Meet your mentor
Every Spark & Anvil app has a friendly mentor character that demonstrates, praises, and patiently scaffolds learning. On-device AI personalizes the mentor's responses to your kid's progress — never connecting to a server, never collecting data.
Mentored by Circle Circe
#D97706 MathCircle puts 2 to 4 kids around a single iPad with rotating roles — one Scribe who writes, one Checker who reviews, and one or two Proposers who suggest the next move. Problems come from the math-circle tradition (Berkeley Math Circle, Zvonkin, MATHCOUNTS) — picked to spark discussion, not to drill speed.
Distributed-narrative cast
Meet the cast
MathCircle's cast carries the cooperative math-circle posture: a meta-host who steps back so kids talk to each other, a listener-restater who weaves social fabric, a wait-time keeper, and a dual-voice productive-failure surface.
Circle Circe
Meta-host who steps back to let kids talk to each other
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Echo Edie
Listener-restater; social-fabric weaver
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Patty Patient
Wait-time character; gentle anti-pressure presence
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Tortoise Hare
Dual-voice productive-failure surface; embodies the slow-fast tension
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Tess Try-Small
Specializing — when a problem's too big, try the smallest version first
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Gemma General
Generalizing — turning a pattern from a few cases into a rule for all of them
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Hattie Hunch
Conjecturing — daring to guess boldly, then testing the guess honestly
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Reva Reverse
Working backwards — starting from the goal and reasoning back to the start
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Wendy Wonder
Notice-and-wonder — slowing down to observe and ask before rushing to solve
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Cass Check
Sense-checking — asking whether an answer actually makes sense before trusting it
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Browse all 10 chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Rotating Roles
Scribe, Checker, Proposer — rotate every problem. Everyone takes turns thinking out loud.
60 Circle Problems
Hand-curated from Berkeley Math Circle, Zvonkin, MATHCOUNTS hardest, and other math-circle classics.
Wait Time Built In
Patty Patient holds space when the table goes quiet. Productive struggle is the point.
Pass-and-Play
One iPad, one device. No accounts. Nothing leaves the table.
Mentored by Circle Circe — on-device AI, no data leaves the device.
How MathCircle handles your kid's data
- ✅ All progress, settings, and AI-generated content stays on the device
- ✅ No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs
- ✅ No ads, no in-app purchases — you pay once
- ✅ COPPA compliant under the 2026 FTC amendments
- ✅ Parental controls + session limits + content filters built in
MathCircle runs on ForgeKit — the open-source Swift Package Manager framework that powers every Spark & Anvil app. ForgeKit ensures consistent accessibility, COPPA compliance, and design language across the portfolio, so your kid's progress and preferences feel coherent across every app they touch.
Coming to the App Store
MathCircle is in active development. Email us to hear when it ships — no marketing, no spam, just a one-shot launch announcement.
Email me at launch