MathQuest began with a fairly ordinary homeschooling question: how do I help my kids practice math facts consistently without making the repetition the part of the day we all dread?
The first version was a small experiment for our family. I used Google Apps Script and Google Sheets to put together timed math practice with a story to unlock along the way. It gave me something we could try, change, and try again, rather than waiting until I had a perfect idea of what the app should become.
That was the version I wrote about originally. MathQuest has changed quite a bit since then, and it is now publicly accessible at mathquest.thrivingfries.com.
It is still a pilot. The public site describes it as a friends-and-family experiment, free to try and open to feedback. Opening the door to other families gives me a chance to find out whether something built around our own needs can be useful beyond our home.
A few focused minutes of practice
The basic idea is still short, consistent practice. A parent creates a family account, adds a child profile, and chooses the broad areas the child is ready to work on: addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. A starting assessment gives the app an initial sense of where to begin.
From there, the child works through one problem at a time in Math Focus Mode. The guide suggests starting with five minutes, a few days a week. Parents can adjust the practice length and categories rather than treating that suggestion as a schedule every family has to follow.
There is a Skip / Don't Know option when a question is too difficult, and a Finish Early option when a round needs to end. I think those are important parts of the design. A child being stuck, or a family needing to stop, should be something the app can accommodate.
At the end of a round, MathQuest shows the results, awards Star Tokens, and updates the child's practice progress. Eligible rounds also continue the Companion Journey.
The story has changed too
The original version used a story that unfolded through daily missions. Today's companion journey begins with a mystery egg. The child doesn't know which animal is inside until it hatches; it might be a dragon, an owl, a sea turtle, or one of several other companions.
After hatching, the child can name the companion, choose its first look, and continue caring for and training it as practice continues. The intention is to give the next short round a little more meaning than another screen of questions.
The journey doesn't punish mistakes or missed days. Practice comes first, and the companion moment comes afterward. I want the story to be a reason to return, while leaving space for practice to be imperfect and for life to happen.
What adaptive practice means here
I don't want “adaptive” to mean simply moving to harder questions whenever a score looks good. MathQuest uses the history of practice to decide what needs attention, while keeping the parent's chosen scope in view.
The current practice logic considers specific facts as well as broader skills. Incorrect answers, slow responses and earlier practice help shape what comes next. It also brings stronger facts back for review. Getting something right in one round and still recalling it later are different things, and the app's progress model treats them separately.
AI-assisted review is another part of the system when available, but it isn't the whole mechanism. The practice rules and saved answer history still matter. There is also a fallback so the basic practice and story flow can continue if an AI request isn't available.
None of that makes a score a complete picture of a child's understanding. MathQuest is focused on arithmetic practice. It sits alongside explanations, conversations, manipulatives, and the other ways we explore math together.
A clearer view for parents
The Parent Dashboard brings the practice plan, learning progress, and Companion Journey status into one place. Parents can adjust categories and practice time, request a new assessment, and see AI Coach notes when those are available.
Parents can also receive practice summaries by email, including missed questions and notices when a round finishes early. The idea is to make it easier to see where support might help without having to hover over every answer.
These views are for the family account. Making the app publicly accessible doesn't mean making children's profiles or practice histories public.
Where the project stands
This is now an account-based web app, rather than just the original spreadsheet-backed prototype. The project has grown to include parent controls, more detailed practice logic, and a companion journey that can develop over time. It has also grown beyond something only my own family can access.
That doesn't mean it's finished, or that I know how it will fit into every household. The useful questions now are practical ones: is the setup clear? Does the practice feel appropriately challenging? Do the parent updates help? Is the companion journey a reason to come back, or something that needs adjusting?
If you would like to explore it, you can start at MathQuest, read how it works, and see the pilot privacy terms linked from the login page. A parent account is required to use the practice features.
For me, it still comes back to that first question: can I make a little regular practice easier to return to? MathQuest is my ongoing attempt to build something useful around that question, and now other families can help me see what I'm missing.