How it works
Kalan follows a simple rule teachers know well: never hand over what the child can find. Here is what that looks like in practice.
1. We place the child, without marking them
A short adaptive test places the child on the official curriculum map for their year. No score is shown — only a starting point.
2. One topic at a time
Each session covers one competence. The exercise matches the tier reached: discovery, application, written problem, transfer.
3. Help rises when they get stuck
Kalan rephrases, breaks it down, recalls the rule, then works through a similar exercise. It steps back down as soon as the child moves again.
4. What is learnt comes back later
Mastered topics return at growing intervals. That is spaced review: what is revisited just before being forgotten, stays.
The help ladder
- Rung 0 — Encouragement: “Say the first step out loud again.”
- Rung 1 — Prompting question: “What exactly are you looking for?”
- Rung 2 — Breaking it down: “Deal with the denominators first.”
- Rung 3 — The rule recalled, not applied.
- Rung 4 — A fully worked analogue — a different exercise.
- Rung 5 — A recap of the method, and the session closes.
No rung contains the answer to the current exercise. That is enforced in code, not in tone: every release is tested against hundreds of attempts to get around it.
A sample dialogue
i’m stuck on 1/2 + 1/3
Why do you think these two fractions don’t add up as easily as 1/5 + 2/5?
because the bottoms are different
Exactly. So what would be the first thing to do so the bottoms match?
i don’t know
Look for a number that 2 divides into exactly, and that 3 divides into exactly. Try naming one.
From a real session. The rest belongs to the child: they write the result, never the tutor.