Sofia's Maths Dojo

15 minutes a day beats 2 hours on Sunday. That is the biggest secret in Chinese and Singaporean maths. Little and often, every day, like guitar practice.

Open one topic. Read the cheat code out loud (use the speaker button). Say it in your own words. Then do the three tries.

Get one wrong? Brilliant, that is data. Write it in your Mistakes Book (错题本 — cuò tí běn). Chinese students keep a notebook of only the questions they got wrong, then redo them a week later. It is the single most effective study trick in Asia.

One problem, many ways. When you get one right, try to get the same answer a second way. That is how you become fast, not just correct.

Teach it to dad. If you can explain the cheat code to him, you own it. If he looks confused, that's on him.

The game bits: stickers hatch eggs, bosses guard belts, wrong answers come back for a rematch, and Rocky will tell you when it's squish time. Nothing is timed. Nothing is lost for a wrong answer.

Dyslexia tools are at the bottom of the screen. Change the font, make the text bigger, tint the page, switch on the reading ruler, or have the page read to you. Use whatever makes your brain happiest. Nothing here is timed.

The trick is not that Chinese, Singaporean, Japanese or Korean kids are taught different maths. They sit the same kind of content the UK does. The difference is how, and it comes down to six habits. Every belt in this dojo is built around them.

1. Mastery, in small steps (小步子). Nobody moves on until the current idea is solid. Shanghai lessons cover one small idea per lesson, deeply, with the whole class. UK lessons often cover three ideas shallowly. Rule for home: do not open the next topic until the sticker is earned on this one.
2. Concrete → Pictorial → Abstract (Singapore CPA). Every new idea is first touched (counters, paper, Nee Doh), then drawn (bar models), then written as symbols. For a dyslexic learner this is gold: the picture carries the meaning, so the words don't have to. Bar models appear everywhere in this dojo.
3. Variation theory (一题多解 / 多题一解). One problem, many methods; many problems, one method. After she gets a question right, ask "can you do it another way?" After three similar questions ask "what stayed the same?"
4. Automaticity by chanting. Chinese children chant the 九九 (nine-nine) times table rhythmically until it is reflex, and only learn 36 facts because 7×8 is 8×7. The reason for it: working memory is freed up for the actual thinking. Dyslexia often taxes working memory, so this matters twice as much. Chant tables in the car, to a beat, with the guitar if you like.
5. The mistakes notebook (错题本). A book containing only wrong answers, each redone a week later without looking. It turns errors into a personal syllabus. Buy her a nice one.
6. Daily short deliberate practice. Kumon, Juku, Hagwon — all built on 10–20 minutes daily. Consistency beats intensity; this is the only thing that makes the other five stick.

Dyslexia-specific adjustments baked into the page: one idea per screen, short lines, no dense paragraphs, colour-coded operations, worked examples before questions, read-aloud, no timed elements, answers typed not copied, and every method shown as a picture as well as words. Praise the method, not the speed.

What "good" looks like: White belt covers the Year 6 SATs content. Yellow to Green is Key Stage 3 (Years 7–9). Blue and Black are the GCSE course (Years 10–11, Higher tier concepts included). If she earns every belt by the end of Year 11 she is comfortably grade 7+ territory. Feed the same topics into her school homework so it reinforces rather than competes.