What are the three options and what do they cost?
| Option | Typical Canadian cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Private tutor, one-to-one | $40–$80/hour | A diagnosed difficulty, or a specific gap that needs an adult watching the child work |
| Learning centre / franchise | $150–$300/month per child | Families who want a fixed schedule and someone else enforcing it |
| Online learning program | $10–$30/month | Steady daily practice and early detection of a gap, before it becomes a tutoring problem |
| Free tools | $0 | Self-directed children, and any family testing whether daily practice will stick at all |
Figures are approximate ranges for Canada and vary by city — expect the upper end in Toronto and Vancouver. Learning-centre pricing is usually per child, which is what makes a second child expensive.
Which one does my child actually need?
- If there is a diagnosed learning difficulty, or a child is more than about a year behind and not closing the gap, a human tutor or a school assessment is the right call. No app substitutes for that, and one that says it does is selling you something.
- If the problem is a specific, identified gap — division, inference, fractions — targeted practice at the right difficulty is often enough, and is a fraction of the cost.
- If you are not sure whether there is a problem at all, which is the most common situation, the useful spend is on finding out. That is a diagnostic question, not a tutoring one.
What does Daily Academy cost?
The daily mission is free and stays free. The parent dashboard — the skill map, the six-week trajectory and the weekly written insight — is a single family subscription in Canadian dollars that covers every child in the home rather than charging per child, with a 14-day trial before any card is needed. Full prices are on the pricing page.
Worth saying plainly: Khan Academy is free, genuinely good and a real alternative. If your child is self-directed and you do not need a reading of where they stand, it may be all you need.