Learn

Short courses you can read or listen to. Each lesson ends with one question and one request: say it back in your own words. That's how a lesson becomes yours. Every course has something to do together at the table, and prints as a guidebook.

6 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookThinking in OddsSix short lessons on chance: what "likely" means, why a coin has no memory, how to weigh a rare thing, what a fair price is, what a bingo hall keeps, and what the banker keeps at a festival dice game.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookHow to Argue WellFour short lessons on disagreeing well: separating a claim from its reasons, putting the other side at its strongest, spotting two common slips, and changing your mind gracefully.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookHow to ListenFour short lessons on listening well: hearing the whole thing before answering, asking a real question, saying it back, and listening when you disagree.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookThe Night SkyFour short lessons for looking up: why the stars cross the night, why the Moon changes shape, how to tell a planet from a star, and how far the light has come.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookRead the News WellFour short lessons on reading the news: telling report from opinion, checking who is behind a claim, reading past the headline, and keeping a number in proportion.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookGreat Games of Chess HistoryFour short lessons on what famous old games teach: getting your pieces out, opening lines, a sacrifice that pays, and calm in the endgame — with games to replay.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookGo Through the AgesFour short lessons on the oldest board game still played: what keeps a stone alive, why a group needs two eyes, a famous quiet move from 1846, and the opening that changed the game in 1933 — with a board to try it on.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookThinking Under FogFour short lessons on deciding when you cannot see everything: reading what is visible, what information is worth, pretending fairly, and staying steady when things go wrong.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookThinking in LoopsFour short lessons on how things build up and run down: stocks and flows, loops that snowball or settle, why delays make us overshoot, and why every model is an argument.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookThe Folded LineFour short lessons on paper: a fold is a mirror, what a corner allows, paper that flew, and one straight cut.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookHow to Explain a GameFour short lessons for starting a game with people who have never played it: say how you win, show one turn, start early, and change one rule out loud.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookHow to Play AgainFour short lessons for grown-ups who have forgotten how to play with a child: follow their lead, join in at their size, add one small twist, and stop while it is still good.
5 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookHow to Run a RoomFive short lessons for one grown-up and a room of children: one quiet signal, a job for every change, fair teams, two questions for a fight, and an ending they want more of.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookCoach by QuestionsFour short lessons for coaching a child who is better at the game than you are: ask what they see, ask before they move, ask after they lose, and let them teach you.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookThinking with MachinesFour short lessons on working with AI tools without handing over your thinking: say what you mean, lock your own answer first, check it against the source, and know when not to ask.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookThe Maths They Teach NowFour short lessons for grown-ups who learned maths another way: number bonds, ten-frames, bar diagrams and the area model, each with a game for the kitchen table.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookAhead, Not AloneA calm short course for the parent of a child who races ahead in one subject: what the research says about moving faster, depth before speed, finding other curious children, and when to do nothing at all.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookThe Shape of LifeFour short lessons on proteins, the folded chains that do most of the work in living things: why shape matters, how a chain folds, what a prediction can and cannot tell you, and how pictures of the real thing are made. Pairs with the Fold Commons Viewer.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookThe Partnership TableBridge as a conversation with a regular partner: counting what you hold, the first bid as a sentence, the opening lead, and duplicate play, where every table gets the same cards so luck cancels out.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookHow to Ask an Elder, and Be AskedFour short lessons for both sides of a conversation across fifty years: ask about a day, not a life; let silence work; say it back; and keep what you heard honestly.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookDrawing a ProblemThe bar model for grown-ups, in four lessons: parts and a whole, more and less, equal units, and how a bar becomes an equation. Then let the child at your table teach you.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookMoney, DrawnFour everyday money ideas, each drawn as a strip of paper: a paycheck's parts, a tax bracket as a cut bar, interest as last year's bar plus a slice, and a loan's shrinking interest.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookNear EnoughFriendly numbers for grown-ups: round and fix, make a ten, a tip as ten per cent and half again, and the habit of asking whether an answer is the right size.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookA Number's True SizeFour ways numbers in the news get bigger or smaller than they are: per cent against percentage points, relative against absolute risk, big totals per person, and a test result counted out in beans.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookWhy the Formula WorksFour rules most of us learned without a reason, rebuilt with paper: long multiplication as a rectangle, dividing by a fraction, cross-multiplying and completing the square.
3 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookBeads Before NumbersThe abacus as the oldest hands-eyes-symbols machine: what each bead means, how a full rod hands on a ten, and how to make one from beans and string so the grandparent can teach.
4 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookThinking in RatesPace, speed and the arithmetic of a race: one number over another, the same speed in two units, why a longer race is slower per mile, and how age-grading lets a family compare across the generations.
5 lessons · a table activity · a guidebookAnswering a WhyFive short lessons for the grown-up on the other end of “why?”: answer the why that was asked, say “I don’t know — let’s find out”, say what is known and what is guessed, ask for a guess first, and keep the question.

Each course re-tells, for grown-ups, what one of the studio's children's apps teaches — so you and a child can be learning the same idea. What you write stays on this device. See your learning or read the free books in the Library.