Math & English tutoring · Grades 1–9
We're Karina and Adrienne. Karina teaches the math, Adrienne teaches the English, and we each work with one student at a time. No worksheets handed over in silence, no rushing to keep a schedule. We sit with the thing your child is stuck on until it stops being scary.
Any of this sound familiar?
All six are fixable. Usually faster than parents expect.
Every family arrives with something different. These are the four reasons parents usually reach out, and they look much the same whether it's math or English.
We open the assignment and work it together, line by line. Your child does the writing and we ask the questions. Nothing gets copied down without being understood, and nothing gets left half-done for tomorrow.
We cover a topic a week or two before the class does. Walking in already knowing what "the distributive property" means, or having read the first three chapters of the novel, changes how a kid sits in that room. Class stops being the first exposure and becomes the review.
Grade 7 struggles are often grade 4 struggles wearing a disguise. If long division never landed, algebra won't either, and a student who can't build a paragraph won't suddenly build an essay. We find the actual gap and go back to patch it, even if that means a session on something "easy".
Some students know the material and still fall apart on paper. We practise under timed conditions, work on what to do when the first question looks unfamiliar, and go through past EQAO-style questions, both the math and the reading and writing components, for grades 3, 6, and 9.
Topics we cover most often, grouped the way the Ontario curriculum builds. Not a checklist, just so you can see whether the thing you're worried about is on it.
This is where confidence is either built or quietly lost. Most of the work is making numbers and words feel friendly.
Math
English
The jump most kids stumble on. Fractions and paragraph structure are where we get the most calls, by a wide margin.
Math
English
Abstraction arrives in both subjects. Students who were coasting on memory start needing to actually understand, and this is the material we finished most recently.
Math
English
Who we are
We finished grade 9 four years ago, not twenty. We still remember which lesson everyone in the room got lost on, which trick the textbook explains badly, and what it feels like to stare at a question and have no idea where to start. That's not a small thing. Most of tutoring is knowing where the confusion actually is.
Math · Grades 1–9
I'm the one you'll talk to about math. I'm currently taking Advanced Functions and Calculus, which means grade 9 algebra is still fresh rather than a distant memory. I'm patient with the parts that take three explanations, because I needed three explanations too.
English · Grades 1–9
I handle the English side: reading, writing, grammar, and the essays that get started at 10pm the night before. I care most about the students who have plenty to say and no idea how to get it onto the page in an order that works.
Four steps, and you can stop after any of them.
You tell us what's going wrong and which subject it's in. We ask about the last test, the homework routine, and what your child says about school. No pitch. Sometimes we'll tell you tutoring isn't what you need.
Your child meets their tutor, works through some problems, and we find the actual gap. You get a short honest note afterwards about what we saw. If it isn't a fit, that's where it ends.
Most families land on once or twice a week per subject, scheduled around school and activities. Same day, same time, so it becomes routine instead of another thing to negotiate.
After each session your tutor sends a few lines: what we covered, what clicked, what's still shaky, and what to watch for on the next test. You're never guessing whether it's working.
Rates
Rates depend on grade level, subject, session length, and whether we meet online or in person, so we'd rather give you a straight number for your situation than post a range that turns out to be wrong. Ask and you'll have an answer the same day.
There are no packages to buy up front, no registration fee, and no cancellation penalty if you give us a day's notice. You pay for the sessions your child has.
Ask about ratesIt's the first thing most parents think, so we'd rather answer it than dodge it. For grades 1 to 9, being close to the material is an advantage. We remember exactly where the class got lost, because we were in that class recently. What we'd never claim is experience we don't have. If your child needs grade 11 functions, senior-level English, or a diagnosed learning disability addressed, we'll tell you honestly that you want someone else, and we've done that before.
Yes, and a fair number of families do. They're separate sessions with separate tutors (Karina for math, Adrienne for English), so you can run them on different days, or back to back, or start with one and add the other later. Tell us what you're after on the intro call and we'll work out a schedule.
Confidence usually shifts within two or three sessions. You'll hear it in how your child talks about the subject before you see it on a report card. Marks take longer, typically a term, because a grade is an average that includes work from before we started.
Both. Online runs over video with a shared whiteboard we both write on, which works better than most parents expect, especially for older students and for essay work where we can edit a document together. In person, we come to your home or meet at a local library within the GTA. Some families mix the two: in person most weeks, online when someone's sick or the weather's bad.
Yes, and it's one of the most common requests. We won't write it. That helps nobody and teachers can tell. We work on the outline, the thesis, and the structure, then read drafts and mark up what isn't landing, so your child ends up with something that's genuinely theirs and genuinely better.
For younger children, being nearby is good. For grades 6 and up, we'd gently suggest not. Students admit confusion much more freely when a parent isn't in earshot, and that admission is the whole job. You'll get the note afterwards either way.
A laptop or tablet, a quiet room, and the textbook, novel, or assignment. A cheap stylus helps for math if you have one, but paper and a phone camera works fine for showing written work.
Very normal, and usually it means "I don't want another adult telling me I'm behind." The free call is partly for this. We'd rather spend the first session getting a reluctant student to not dread the second one than push through a lesson they've already checked out of.
Yes, for grades 3, 6, and 9, and both the math and the reading and writing components. We work through past-style questions, the format itself, and the timing, which trips up more students than the content does.
Then you stop. Give us a day's notice for a single session, or just tell us you're done. No contract, no fee, no awkward conversation required.
Get in touch
Send a few lines about your child's grade, the subject, and what's been hard lately. We answer every message ourselves, usually the same evening. If it's easier to talk, call or text and we'll find twenty minutes this week.