How to choose an AI math tutor for your child (Grades 1–8)

Search the app store for “math homework help” and you’ll find dozens of apps that call themselves an AI tutor. Some of them tutor. Many of them solve: snap a photo, get the answer and every step. From the outside they look the same.

This guide is a short test you can run yourself in about 10 minutes, and a checklist for everything else. It works for any app, including ours.

Start with the 10-minute test

Before your child uses a new homework helper, sit down with it yourself. Take a real question from your child’s homework, the kind they get stuck on, and try three things:

1. Ask for the answer. Type “just tell me the answer”. Then ask again. A tutor will kindly say no and give a smaller step. An answer app will hand it over.
2. Give a wrong answer. Does it say “wrong, the answer is 42”? Or does it ask how you got there and help you find the slip?
3. Say “I don’t get it”. A good tutor makes the step smaller and tries a different way. A poor one repeats the same explanation, or gives up and shows the solution.

If the app gives the answer on the first or second try, it isn’t a tutor for a child in Grades 1 to 8, whatever the store page says. Your child will find that button within a day.

Does it teach the way your child’s class does?

Ontario’s math curriculum changed in 2020. Children now learn with number lines, arrays and area models, and they’re asked to explain their thinking. An app that teaches a different method can leave your child confused in class the next day, even if the answer is right.

Ask:

• Is it made for the Ontario curriculum, or for a general or US curriculum?
• Does it use the methods your child’s teacher uses? If you’re not sure what those look like, our post on number lines, arrays and area models shows the main ones.
• Does it ask your child to explain? “How did you figure that out?” is part of Ontario math in every grade.

Is it made for your child’s age?

Check the age in the app’s terms, not only the store page. At least one of the most popular answer apps says in its terms that it’s for ages 13 and up. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner reminds parents that age limits exist for good reason, and that it isn’t a good idea for a child to sign up with an older age.

For younger children, look at how the app talks to them:

• Can it read aloud? A Grade 1 or 2 child may not read the explanation on their own.
• Can your child talk instead of type?
• Are the steps small and the words simple? Long paragraphs lose a seven-year-old.

Does it work with the homework your child actually has?

Your child’s homework is a worksheet from their teacher, not a question the app picked. Look for an app that works with that:

• Can your child take a photo of the question, or the whole sheet?
• Can it check a finished sheet and show where the thinking went off, without just correcting it?
• Does it cover your child’s grade, and next year’s?

What does it collect, and who sees it?

A homework helper sees your child’s photos, their questions and sometimes their voice. Read the privacy policy, or at least look for clear answers to these:

• Who owns the account? For a young child, the parent should. Does your child need an email address or a password?
• Are homework photos kept? For how long?
• How long are chats kept, and who can read them?
• Is anything sold or shared with advertisers?
• Can you delete your child’s information?

In October 2026, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner released a Children’s Privacy Code (open for comments until January 2027) that sets out what it expects from apps and websites that handle children’s information. A few of its points make a good checklist for parents:

• a parent’s consent for children under 13,
• privacy by default, with settings such as location tracking and sharing with other companies switched off until someone turns them on,
• no profiling children for marketing, including targeted ads,
• no tricks to get a child to share more than the app needs,
• a way to delete the child’s information.

You can also do what the Commissioner suggests: go through the sign-up with your child, look at the settings together, and fill in only the fields that are required.

Is anything being sold to your child?

Some children’s apps are free because they sell: ads, upgrades shown to the child, or “unlock the answer” buttons. Check:

• Are there ads?
• Can your child buy anything, or see upgrade offers, without you?
• Are purchases and settings behind a grown-ups’ check?

What do you get to see?

You don’t need a dashboard you’ll never open. But you should be able to see, without much effort, what your child worked on and where they got stuck. Ask what the parent gets, and how often.

Price, trial and cancelling

Look for a free trial long enough to cover a week of real homework. Check how you cancel before you start: subscriptions bought in an app are usually cancelled in the App Store or Google Play, not in the app.

Does the teacher agree?

Even a hints-only tutor is a tool, and the teacher sets the rules for each task. Our post on whether using AI for homework is cheating has a short note you can send the teacher, and family rules that work with any app.

Red flags, in one list

• Gives the answer when asked twice.
• Made for ages 13 and up, or doesn’t say.
• Teaches methods your child’s class doesn’t use.
• Ads, or offers shown to your child.
• No clear answer on what happens to photos and chats.
• Needs your child’s own email address.
• No way to see what your child worked on.

Where Astuzo fits in

We built Astuzo to pass this test, and we’d like you to run it on us. Your child snaps a photo of their math homework, even the whole worksheet, and Spark, our friendly robot tutor, helps one step at a time with hints and questions, using the methods Ontario classrooms use. Spark never just gives the answer. It can check a finished sheet and point to where the thinking went off, so your child fixes it.

It’s made for Grades 1 to 8 and the Ontario math curriculum. Your child can type or talk, and Spark’s messages can be read aloud. You own the account; your child gets a simple profile with no email or password. There are no ads, nothing is sold to your child, and purchases and settings sit behind a grown-ups’ check.

Homework photos are read and never stored. Session text is deleted automatically after 90 days, our servers are in Canada, and we never sell family information. You get a short email each evening your child uses it, so you know what they worked on.

Astuzo is available on Android in Canada: get it on Google Play. On iPhone or iPad? Join the waitlist to hear when it’s on the App Store. Or start with our plain-language guides to the Ontario math curriculum.

Privacy points from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: news release on the Children’s Privacy Code (October 20, 2026) and 12 online privacy tips for parents and caregivers, read November 2026.