What's new

What has changed on Gradeless, newest first, and what we're working on. Gradeless changes often — sometimes several times a day — so this page groups changes by month and leaves out the plumbing.

Last updated September 29, 2026

September 2026

Every lesson has its own page: Each lesson now has a page you can read and share — what it teaches, its levels, the skills it practises — and a link you send shows a picture card in messages. Old links still work.
About eighty new lessons: Tens and Ones, Fractions, Square Gardens, Tenths and Hundredths and Word Pairs, then dozens more across time, money, shapes, place value, angles, rulers, rounding, estimation, mini sudoku, secret codes, robot commands, never-lose tic-tac-toe, focus games, the solar system, food webs and maps; five lessons on turns, flips, cube nets and block buildings; six new K–5 math lessons — Hundreds Tens and Ones, Story Problems, Number Bonds, Fraction Number Lines, Unlike Denominators and Box Volume; Quick Look, a flash-card counting lesson that needs no reading; and Letters & Writing, two tracing lessons for children learning to hold a pencil.
Then and Now, the first history lesson: For kindergarten through grade 2, no reading needed: which came first? Timelines and maps come later.
Lessons adapt while you play: When a level is easy the lesson moves ahead sooner; when a child is stuck it steps back; every fifteen questions there is a short break, taken at the end of a level, never in the middle. A handful of levels whose only challenge was typing are gone — answers are multiple choice unless typing is the point.
A warm-up a slip can't sink: The starting-spot warm-up is now adaptive: mostly multiple choice, it stops when it is sure, and one wrong answer never drops a child a whole grade. The "what grade?" question at sign-up is gone; the warm-up decides.
Read aloud: Every question has a speaker button. Children who can't read yet hear each question automatically, in the device's own voice.
Home is "for you": Next up, six more lessons that fit, a search box, and every lesson by subject on the All lessons page. The lesson you played last comes back to the top. Nothing above your child's reading level is suggested.
Grown-ups sign in too: Getting started now asks who you are — student, parent or teacher. Parents and teachers make the same kind of account as a kid, a first name and a code, and see their kids and classes on their Profile page. A kid links to a grown-up with a 15-minute code or by scanning a login card; teachers get a printable card for every student.
Privacy policy and COPPA notice: Published, and made true in the code: children's first names are stored encrypted, so our database identifies children only by random numbers; sign-in codes are hashed; if a child types their own name into a feedback note, it's replaced.
Star Lanes: A new arcade game: an on-rails space adventure with a route map, timed power-ups and a boss at the end of every level — a long campaign meant to last across many sittings.
Cake Climb is fairer: Kids told us it was too hard, and the timing of one jump was the reason. We measured it, redrew the levels with more variety, and added power-ups earned in lessons.
Better on phones: Numbers go in through an on-screen pad, so the keyboard never hides the question; the question, keypad and choices fit on one screen; a fullscreen button; games that need a real keyboard are hidden on phones.
Every level teaches one thing: We wrote down what each lesson teaches and what each level adds, then re-cut the ladders that didn't fit: coin values are taught before they're asked, a miss shows the skill, and a few multi-idea levels were split into one idea each.
Subjects, and pay that fits: Lessons and the skill map are grouped into subjects, with your child's level in each worked out from what they've shown. Arcade time now varies with how much of a stretch a question is, instead of a flat rate. "Check my level" appears on home when the last warm-up is over a month old.
Small things: See last answer between questions. Feedback sent from inside a lesson says which question it was about. The game screen is just a back arrow, Feedback and your avatar, with level and progress in one line. Updates to the site land between questions, never mid-answer. A batch of fixes from your notes, too many to list.

August–early September 2026

Save your progress with a code: A first name and a secret code carry progress to any device. A Profile page and a Progress page (practice time vs. play time, levels, facts to work on).
Arcade time instead of lives: Every correct answer pays seconds of play; the arcade spends them. Brick Breaker gained levels, and Fire Runner and Dino Runner joined it. Runs resume where you left off.
Flashcards: Addition, subtraction and multiplication flashcards in batches of ten, aimed at what your child is ready for; a missed fact comes back around until it sticks; a fast or perfect batch earns an arcade power-up.
The Feedback button: On every page, straight to us.

Before that

Rebuilt from scratch: Gradeless was rebuilt from scratch in January 2026 as a fast site that works on a phone, followed by a first letter-tracing experiment in the spring. Everything above was built on that.

What we're working on

An honest list, with no dates. Things move up it when someone asks for them with the Feedback button.

A recovery email for grown-ups: Building now: a parent or teacher will be able to add an email, verify it once, and get a fresh code if theirs is lost. Never for a child's account, and never required.
Subject pages: One page per subject — all the fractions lessons, all the telling-time lessons — so a big catalogue stays easy to browse.
More of the K–5 core in math: Next in line: line plots, multiplying and dividing decimals, multiplication and division story problems, arrays and odd/even, sorting triangles and quadrilaterals, and place value to a million.
More history: Timelines, then maps — how to think about when and where, nothing political.
A clearer picture for grown-ups: We're exploring a better way to show a parent or teacher what a child is finding hard, not just what they've finished.
Exploring: what would you like to be?: A child picks a few things they'd like to be — pilot, teacher, doctor, engineer — and the suggested lessons lean gently that way. Built and being tested; not switched on for everyone yet.

Not planned, ever: Ads, tracking, asking a child for an email address, or leaderboards.

Curious what Gradeless is or who makes it? Read About.