Home education platform for families who do it their own way
Most home education platforms sell you a path: a fixed curriculum, in a fixed order, at a fixed pace. That works until you have a child who is three years ahead in reading and behind in writing, or who will not touch anything that looks like school, or who wants to spend a month on Ancient Egypt.
Different Drums is built the other way round. It gives you the tools and you decide the shape. Used by home-educating families in the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and beyond.
What it actually does
- Builds a structured curriculum on almost any topic, from calculus to Norwegian folklore to animal care, with week-by-week checkpoints you can follow or ignore.
- Generates printable worksheets, tests and practice for nearly any subject, age and ability level.
- Gives each child a conversational AI tutor that explains rather than hands over answers.
- Keeps the learning record as you go: tutor sessions, worksheets and curriculum progress log themselves, and you add trips, books and everyday learning in a line.
- Produces education reports for a local authority, an umbrella school, a portfolio review or your own peace of mind.
- Covers 16 subject areas with age-aware content from 2 to 16+.
Built for spiky, uneven, real children
Working level is set per subject, not derived from age. A twelve year old can do secure number bonds in maths and read at fifteen-year-old level in English, without either being flagged as wrong. For neurodivergent learners with uneven profiles, that single design decision removes most of the friction.
Accessibility is built in rather than bolted on: dyslexia-friendly fonts, adjustable text size, multiple colour themes, high contrast, and voice input and output.
Your values, not ours
You set your family’s worldview, faith position, philosophy or secular approach per child, and it carries across subjects. A Biblical Christian family, a Science-Focused family and a Freethinking family get genuinely different framing on the same topic, and none of them gets ours.
Where the accuracy comes from
Practice in arithmetic, maths, calculus, chemistry and physics is drawn from 200,000+ hand-verified questions rather than being generated on demand. Every one has been read and checked by a person. That is slow, unglamorous work, and it is the reason the maths can be trusted in a way generated maths cannot.
The honest limit: on very niche or specialist topics, AI tutoring is less reliable, and that applies to us as much as anyone. For core school subjects it is solid. For obscure corners, treat it as a starting point and verify.
What it costs
Parent Only starts at GBP 9.99 a month and covers worksheets, curriculum building, planning and reports. Parent + Child starts at GBP 9.99 per child a month and adds a full AI tutor for your child. Available in GBP, USD, EUR, AUD and CAD.
14 days free, no credit card required, plus a guest mode you can try with no sign-up at all. If the price is genuinely difficult, email and we will talk about options.
Who built it
Different Drums was built by Emily, a neurodivergent home-educating mother of seven, because nothing available handled very different children, uneven ability, big feelings, strong interests, family values and the record-keeping all at once. It was built from inside the work.
Common questions
Do I have to follow a set curriculum?
No. You can follow a structured week-by-week path, build one around a child’s special interest, generate a single worksheet for one tricky skill, or let the tutor follow whatever your child asked at breakfast. Most families use several of these at once.
Does it work outside the UK?
Yes. It is not tied to any one national curriculum, which suits families following a different system, several systems, or none. Pricing is available in five currencies and the record-keeping maps onto most reporting requirements.
Can I use it alongside a curriculum I have already bought?
Yes, and many families do. It is designed to fill gaps and add practice rather than to replace what already works for you.
What devices does it run on?
It runs in any web browser and there is an Android app. An iOS app and a Google Play release are on the way.
Learning that flexes around your child
Different Drums builds curricula, worksheets, tests and learning records around almost any topic, shaped to your child's pace, interests and your family's values. Core practice in maths and science comes from 200,000+ hand-verified questions. Ages 2-16+, used by families worldwide.
No credit card required. There is also a free guest mode with no sign-up.