Different Drums - For Families Who Learn at a Different Beat

Different Drums is personalised AI learning for neurodivergent, home-educating and unconventional families worldwide. It is live now in your browser, with a direct Android app download. Build curricula, worksheets, tutor chats, tests, learning records and reports around almost any topic: finance, calculus, chemistry, folklore, animal care, mythology, coding, life skills, or the question your child asked at breakfast. Accuracy-heavy practice in arithmetic, maths, calculus, chemistry and physics is backed by 200,000+ hand-verified questions so far to reduce AI hallucination. Ages 2-16+. 14-day free trial, no credit card required, plus a free no-sign-up guest mode.

Why Different Drums exists

We are not here to fix the education system. We are here to build something better, for the families who never wanted the system in the first place.

Not fixed lessons. Learning that flexes.

Most learning platforms sell a path. Different Drums gives parents tools. You can follow a structured curriculum, build one from a child's special interest, generate a worksheet for one tricky skill, or let the tutor explore a question that came up over breakfast. The app bends around the child instead of forcing the child through a standard sequence.

It does not ask you to give up what already works. If you have bought a curriculum, follow an exam board, or run your own plan, Different Drums works around it: it generates worksheets for your scheme, builds lesson plans and a term planner around it, logs everything your family does, and turns the whole lot into an education report when someone asks for one. The tutor will help with almost any topic, whatever the source of the work.

What makes Different Drums different

Built for different brains: curiosity spikes, uneven profiles, sensory needs, special interests, burnout days and brilliant days.
Build a curriculum for anything: week-by-week structured curricula built in the app, for a full year of maths or for finance, calculus, Norwegian folklore, dinosaurs, baking, Minecraft, ancient Egypt, animal care, philosophy, worldviews or a child's own question.
Or bring your own: keep the scheme you already bought, the exam board you are following or your own plan. Different Drums generates worksheets for it, builds lesson plans around it and keeps the records, without asking you to abandon any of it.
A learning log that catches everything: museum trips, documentaries, forest walks, clubs, books, animals, baking, and the work done from your own curriculum, all in one place.
Lesson plans and a planner: build lesson plans and lay out terms, weeks and daily routines, printable, for your own curriculum or one built in the app.
Worksheets about almost anything: printable worksheets, tests and practice for nearly any topic, age and ability level.
200,000+ hand-verified questions: arithmetic, maths, calculus, chemistry and physics practice is checked by hand to reduce AI hallucination where accuracy matters most.
An AI tutor that adapts: conversational learning that follows curiosity, adjusts pace and helps children think rather than dumping answers.
Your values built in: faith-based, secular, philosophical or your own worldview, carried across subjects.
Global home learning: multi-currency pricing and flexible records for portfolios, umbrella schools, local authorities or your own peace of mind.
16 subject areas: maths, science, literacy, arts, technology, nature, wellbeing, philosophy, life skills, worldviews and more.
Reports without the scramble: tutor work, worksheets, curricula, trips, books, clubs and everyday learning pulled into clear education reports.
Accessibility first: dyslexia-friendly fonts, adjustable text size, voice input and output, colour themes, high contrast and sensory-aware design.
Safe by design: content filtering, parent controls, full conversation visibility, alerts, GDPR/COPPA alignment and encryption in transit and at rest.
Three doors, one app: the app itself for the parent, Drum Circle for talking to other home-educating families, and Bongo's Curios, a children's encyclopedia the children write themselves. A child writes up something they have found out, a parent approves it, and it goes live for other home-educated children to read.

How the AI tutor works

The tutor holds a real conversation rather than lecturing. It can begin with a child's own curiosity, adapt to their pace and learning style, and turn that interest into meaningful learning. Parents can set family values and read every conversation.

Subjects covered, ages 2-16+

Different Drums covers 16 broad subject areas including literacy, maths, science, humanities, creative arts, technology, life skills, nature, worldviews, wellbeing, future thinking and early learning. Topics are age-aware so content stays appropriate.

Pricing

All plans include a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Parent Only starts at GBP 9.99/month for worksheets, curriculum building, planning and reports. Parent + Child starts at GBP 9.99 per child/month and adds a full AI tutor. Pricing is available in GBP, USD, EUR, AUD and CAD. Larger families, or families who genuinely want to use Different Drums but are struggling with the price, can contact Emily to discuss options such as reduced pricing, beta testing, feedback or helping spread the word.

About the founder

Different Drums was built by Emily, a neurodivergent home-educating mum of seven. She started building it on 2nd August 2025, having never written a line of code, and it has taken a year, funded entirely by her family. We are the end users: everything in Different Drums exists because her family needed it first. She built it because her family needed something that could handle very different children, uneven ability levels, strong interests, family values and the practical record-keeping that comes with home education. Different Drums is for families anywhere in the world who need learning to flex around the child, not the other way round.

Sister apps in development

Two further apps are being built alongside Different Drums, sharing the same backend. Different Drums Worksheets is a standalone AI worksheet generator for tutors, teachers, childminders and parents who want printable worksheets without the full home-education platform. Whimsiversity is self-paced learning for adults, for people who want to study something for their own sake rather than for a qualification. Both are in development.

Different Drums is a product of 9 Drummers Drumming Ltd. Start a free trial at https://differentdrums.life