If you are reading this, you are probably trying to figure out which after-school program is the right fit for your child. Maybe you have already looked at Mathnasium. Maybe someone in your neighborhood recommended it. That is completely fair. However, you should do your research.
Here is what we want you to know about Genie Academy so you can make the best decision for your family.
Genie Academy is not a franchise. It is owned under one corporate umbrella. Every single one of our locations in central New Jersey operates under the same leadership, the same teaching philosophy, and the same quality standards. There is no "franchise roulette" when you enroll your child. What you get at our East Brunswick location is the same thing you get at our Hillsborough location.
One company. One standard. Every location rated 4.8 stars or higher on Google.
Our business model is simple. We help you discover the genius your child was born to be, delight you with their progress so you keep them enrolled and refer your friends, and provide an engaging and financially rewarding work environment to our Coaches and staff.
Mathnasium is a franchise with over 1,200 independently owned locations. That means the experience, pricing, and quality will depend on which location you walk into. We encourage you to visit both programs and verify the following points for yourself.
At Genie Academy, we hire Coaches. Not tutors. Not part-time graders. Coaches.
Many of our Coaches have advanced degrees in various fields. But what really sets them apart is our parent review system. Parents review their child's Coach after every class. Those reviews directly impact the Coach's tier and compensation. Here is how it works.
A Coach with under 25 parent reviews is Silver tier. At 25 or more reviews, they reach Gold. At 50, Platinum. And at 100 or more five-star parent reviews, they earn Diamond tier status. Each tier comes with a pay increase, which means our best Coaches are financially rewarded for being great. And you, as a parent, have real data to help you choose the right Coach for your child.
This system does something powerful. It attracts higher-caliber educators who want to be held accountable. It rewards performance. And it gives parents transparency that simply does not exist anywhere else in the tutoring industry.
When you visit Mathnasium, ask who will be teaching your child. Ask about their qualifications. Ask how long they have been there. Ask if there is any system for parents to review and rate the staff. Then compare that to what we offer.
Genie Academy runs real classroom instruction. Here is what that looks like.
Your child walks into a classroom with a maximum of 6 students. One dedicated Coach teaches the entire session. There is a fixed start time and a fixed stop time. The lesson is structured with a clear progression. Our in-house student management app tracks student lessons and progress in real time. Depending on the child, Coaches have complete autonomy to modify lessons to speed up or slow down. The classes include built-in cognition-enhancing activities like mindful meditation, auto suggestions, games, and activities. The class is fast-paced, and the child is refreshed and energized after every class. Imagine that.
Six students maximum. One Coach. A real classroom. Structured lessons. That is our model. As a seasoned coach at Genie Academy I have experienced firsthand the benefit of having a classroom structured with activities and mindfulness. Students are more engaged and ready to learn, they always want to come back!
Mathnasium uses an open floor plan with long tables where multiple students are working with potentially a different coach. We encourage you to visit a Mathnasium location and see the learning environment for yourself. Then visit Genie Academy.
The difference will be obvious.
Every 90 to 120 days, you sit down with your child's Coach for a parent-teacher conference at Genie Academy. You get a full update on where your child stands, what they have mastered, and what comes next. I’ve found this to be one of the most useful things we do here at Genie Academy. My student’s parents are always in the know whenever there is a behavioral issue, academic issue, concept-specific issue we communicate and create a gameplan together. This has helped me create amazing connections with both my students and parents so we’re a team. This is not optional. It is built into how we operate. Our conference attendance rate is over 90%.
Between conferences, you have the Parent Portal. This is where you can track homework, review class records, access learning videos, and use digital flashcards to reinforce concepts at home. You are never in the dark about what your child is learning or how they are progressing.
And here is something that matters more than most parents realize until they experience it. Your child builds a real relationship with their Coach. The same Coach teaches them week after week. That consistency builds trust. It builds confidence. It means your child's Coach actually knows your child. Not just their math level, but how they learn, what motivates them, and when they need a push versus when they need encouragement. I’ve learned about my students' choir concerts and their aced math exams because here at Genie Academy we are consistently building our relationships with our students.
We have seen this play out hundreds of times. Parents tell us their child's Coach knows things about their learning style that even they had not noticed. That level of attention is only possible when class sizes are small, the Coach is consistent, and there is a structured feedback loop in place.
When you visit Mathnasium, ask how often you will receive formal feedback on your child's progress. Ask if there is a parent portal. Ask if the same person will be working with your child every session.
Then compare.
Genie Academy's core teaching philosophy is that anyone can learn anything. And it is not just a tagline. It is a framework built on two pillars that guide everything we do.
The first pillar is Identity Before Mastery. Before a child can master math, or reading, or writing, they need to see themselves as someone who can. We build that identity through small repeated wins, positive language, and an environment where struggle is seen as growth, not failure. A child who believes "I am a math person" will approach a challenging problem differently than a child who has been told, or has told themselves, "I'm just not good at math."
I have seen this with most of my students the confidence shift that occurs when we shift the identity. Many students walk into a subject they struggle with assuming they’re “bad at it” and “it’s just not my thing.” One thing we prioritize at Genie Academy is helping your child understand they can be a math person or reading person or any person they want.
The second pillar is Shu Ha Ri, a staged learning approach borrowed from Japanese martial arts. In the first stage, Shu, you learn the rules. You copy. You repeat until it becomes muscle memory. In the second stage, Ha, you understand the principles well enough to modify and adapt. In the third stage, Ri, you transcend the rules entirely and create your own methods. Our curriculum follows this progression from copying to understanding to mastering.
This philosophy has been tested beyond tutoring. It has been validated in other fields including aviation instruction. It works because it is based on how humans actually learn, not how education companies think they should. Here at Genie Academy the focus is on how each individual child learns and catering to how they will best understand the material.
When you are comparing programs, ask this question: does the program have a documented teaching philosophy? Not a marketing slogan. A real framework that explains how they believe children learn and how their instruction is designed around that belief. At Genie Academy, the answer is yes. For a detailed explanation, you can read our teaching philosophy article.
Genie Academy offers Math, Reading, Writing, Coding, and Abacus Mental Math all under one roof. One location. One schedule. One relationship with one team that knows your child across every subject.
Our curriculum is written by the Coaches who teach it every day. It is completely aligned with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards. We give enough practice so that the child achieves mastery, not memorization. We teach them how to arrive at the answer. The only things they need to memorize are the Times Tables and basic formulae like area, volume conversions, and the Pythagorean theorem. They never need to memorize an operation.
And then there is something no other tutoring company in our market offers: Abacus Mental Math. This program builds number sense, working memory, concentration, and mathematical intuition at a level that no worksheet or open-table format can touch. It trains the brain to visualize numbers and perform calculations mentally. Students who learn on the abacus develop a fundamentally different relationship with math. They don't just solve problems. They see the math.
One of our students Olivia was an Abacus graduate admitted to MIT's Mechanical Engineering program. She credits the Abacus Mental Math program directly, saying her life would have turned out very differently without it. This is your single most powerful success story. A child who learned on the abacus and ended up at one of the most elite universities in the world.
Our curriculum is so well received that students from over 20 US states are enrolled in our online classes.
Mathnasium focuses exclusively on math. If your child needs help with reading, writing, or coding, you will need to find separate programs for each of those subjects. That means different schedules, different locations, and different bills.
At Genie Academy, it is all under one roof.
Here is a question worth asking. Does your child look forward to going to their tutoring program? Or do they dread it?
At Genie Academy, our students are more energized after class than before. That is not an exaggeration. Our Coaches engage the student's intrinsic motivation. When a child masters a concept, their confidence grows. Confidence comes from mastery. And mastery comes from structured, focused instruction in a real classroom built for learning.
Take Tristan from Somerset County. After the disruptions of COVID, he was struggling with reading, writing, and math. His mother Ashley chose Genie Academy because she wanted real teaching. At first, Tristan resisted. He didn't like being challenged. But as he started to see success, something shifted. The same child who pushed back on those early sessions started reminding his mom they were going to be late for class. He went from saying he "didn't enjoy reading or writing" to earning a spot in Claremont's prestigious Gifted and Talented Program.
That transformation does not happen by accident. It happens when a child is in the right environment with the right Coach who knows how to unlock what is already inside them.
We don't just talk about results. We document them. Our website showcases over 100 student success stories, and some of them are incredible.
Yogi was a first grader from North Brunswick whose mother Kirthika knew he had incredible potential from a very young age. She had tried another program first, but the heavy worksheet load overwhelmed him and the rote approach limited his thinking. She switched him to Genie Academy's abacus math and reading classes. Within a year and a half, Yogi was accepted into North Brunswick's Gifted and Talented Program under the SOAR curriculum. His mother noticed a clear difference. At Genie Academy, Yogi was learning the concepts behind the answers instead of just memorizing steps. His logical thinking increased dramatically.
Srinika, a nine-year-old from South Plainfield, scored in the 98th percentile on her first Gifted and Talented assessment after enrolling in Genie Academy's Abacus, Common Core Math, and Reading and Writing programs. She overcame her fears, surpassed her peers, and her parents called it one of the best decisions they have ever made.
These are not hypothetical results. These are real families. Real children. Real transformations.
Here are the numbers. Genie Academy holds a 4.8-star rating across 865 Google reviews. That is 97.3% of parents rating us 4 stars or higher. Every single one of our 7 locations is rated 4.8 or above. Our Hillsborough and Woodbridge locations hold a perfect 5.0.
In our reviews, 284 or more parents mention noticeable improvement in their child. Over 182 parents say they recommend us. Over 181 parents say their child loves coming to class. And 97 or more parents specifically mention their child's confidence growing.
Our Coaches are mentioned by name in hundreds of reviews. Parents build real relationships with the people teaching their children, and they take the time to write about it.
We encourage you to read our reviews on Google for each of our locations. Then look up Mathnasium reviews on Trustpilot, Google, and any other platform you trust. Let other parents' experiences guide your decision.
Here is what you get at Genie Academy.
Easy scheduling and unlimited free makeup. Miss a class with proper notice? Reschedule it. No penalty. No expiration. Life happens. Your child should not lose a class because of it.
Awesome and efficient customer service. Because we are not a franchise, your concerns reach decision-makers directly. Problems get solved the same day. There is no corporate-to-franchise blame game.
A parent-reviewed Coach tier system. You can read reviews from other parents before choosing your child's Coach. Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond tiers give you real data to make decisions.
Regular feedback through parent-teacher conferences every 90 to 120 days. Plus ongoing access to the Parent Portal for scheduling, homework, learning videos, and flashcards.
Multiple subjects under one roof. Math, Reading, Writing, Coding, and Abacus Mental Math. One location. One schedule. One relationship.
When you visit Mathnasium, ask for their pricing upfront. Ask about registration fees. Ask about contract length. Ask about their makeup policy.
Then compare.
With locations throughout central New Jersey, Genie Academy is the Mathnasium alternative that parents have been looking for. Find a Genie Academy near you and book your free assessment today.
Get Your Child's Free Assessment
If you are reading this, you are probably trying to figure out which after-school program is the right fit for your child. Maybe you have already looked at Mathnasium. Maybe someone in your neighborhood recommended it. That is completely fair. However, you should do your research.
Here is what we want you to know about Genie Academy so you can make the best decision for your family.
Genie Academy is not a franchise. It is owned under one corporate umbrella. Every single one of our locations in central New Jersey operates under the same leadership, the same teaching philosophy, and the same quality standards. There is no "franchise roulette" when you enroll your child. What you get at our East Brunswick location is the same thing you get at our Hillsborough location.
One company. One standard. Every location rated 4.8 stars or higher on Google.
Our business model is simple. We help you discover the genius your child was born to be, delight you with their progress so you keep them enrolled and refer your friends, and provide an engaging and financially rewarding work environment to our Coaches and staff.
Mathnasium is a franchise with over 1,200 independently owned locations. That means the experience, pricing, and quality will depend on which location you walk into. We encourage you to visit both programs and verify the following points for yourself.
At Genie Academy, we hire Coaches. Not tutors. Not part-time graders. Coaches.
Many of our Coaches have advanced degrees in various fields. But what really sets them apart is our parent review system. Parents review their child's Coach after every class. Those reviews directly impact the Coach's tier and compensation. Here is how it works.
A Coach with under 25 parent reviews is Silver tier. At 25 or more reviews, they reach Gold. At 50, Platinum. And at 100 or more five-star parent reviews, they earn Diamond tier status. Each tier comes with a pay increase, which means our best Coaches are financially rewarded for being great. And you, as a parent, have real data to help you choose the right Coach for your child.
This system does something powerful. It attracts higher-caliber educators who want to be held accountable. It rewards performance. And it gives parents transparency that simply does not exist anywhere else in the tutoring industry.
When you visit Mathnasium, ask who will be teaching your child. Ask about their qualifications. Ask how long they have been there. Ask if there is any system for parents to review and rate the staff. Then compare that to what we offer.
Genie Academy runs real classroom instruction. Here is what that looks like.
Your child walks into a classroom with a maximum of 6 students. One dedicated Coach teaches the entire session. There is a fixed start time and a fixed stop time. The lesson is structured with a clear progression. Our in-house student management app tracks student lessons and progress in real time. Depending on the child, Coaches have complete autonomy to modify lessons to speed up or slow down. The classes include built-in cognition-enhancing activities like mindful meditation, auto suggestions, games, and activities. The class is fast-paced, and the child is refreshed and energized after every class. Imagine that.
Six students maximum. One Coach. A real classroom. Structured lessons. That is our model. As a seasoned coach at Genie Academy I have experienced firsthand the benefit of having a classroom structured with activities and mindfulness. Students are more engaged and ready to learn, they always want to come back!
Mathnasium uses an open floor plan with long tables where multiple students are working with potentially a different coach. We encourage you to visit a Mathnasium location and see the learning environment for yourself. Then visit Genie Academy.
The difference will be obvious.
Every 90 to 120 days, you sit down with your child's Coach for a parent-teacher conference at Genie Academy. You get a full update on where your child stands, what they have mastered, and what comes next. I’ve found this to be one of the most useful things we do here at Genie Academy. My student’s parents are always in the know whenever there is a behavioral issue, academic issue, concept-specific issue we communicate and create a gameplan together. This has helped me create amazing connections with both my students and parents so we’re a team. This is not optional. It is built into how we operate. Our conference attendance rate is over 90%.
Between conferences, you have the Parent Portal. This is where you can track homework, review class records, access learning videos, and use digital flashcards to reinforce concepts at home. You are never in the dark about what your child is learning or how they are progressing.
And here is something that matters more than most parents realize until they experience it. Your child builds a real relationship with their Coach. The same Coach teaches them week after week. That consistency builds trust. It builds confidence. It means your child's Coach actually knows your child. Not just their math level, but how they learn, what motivates them, and when they need a push versus when they need encouragement. I’ve learned about my students' choir concerts and their aced math exams because here at Genie Academy we are consistently building our relationships with our students.
We have seen this play out hundreds of times. Parents tell us their child's Coach knows things about their learning style that even they had not noticed. That level of attention is only possible when class sizes are small, the Coach is consistent, and there is a structured feedback loop in place.
When you visit Mathnasium, ask how often you will receive formal feedback on your child's progress. Ask if there is a parent portal. Ask if the same person will be working with your child every session.
Then compare.
Genie Academy's core teaching philosophy is that anyone can learn anything. And it is not just a tagline. It is a framework built on two pillars that guide everything we do.
The first pillar is Identity Before Mastery. Before a child can master math, or reading, or writing, they need to see themselves as someone who can. We build that identity through small repeated wins, positive language, and an environment where struggle is seen as growth, not failure. A child who believes "I am a math person" will approach a challenging problem differently than a child who has been told, or has told themselves, "I'm just not good at math."
I have seen this with most of my students the confidence shift that occurs when we shift the identity. Many students walk into a subject they struggle with assuming they’re “bad at it” and “it’s just not my thing.” One thing we prioritize at Genie Academy is helping your child understand they can be a math person or reading person or any person they want.
The second pillar is Shu Ha Ri, a staged learning approach borrowed from Japanese martial arts. In the first stage, Shu, you learn the rules. You copy. You repeat until it becomes muscle memory. In the second stage, Ha, you understand the principles well enough to modify and adapt. In the third stage, Ri, you transcend the rules entirely and create your own methods. Our curriculum follows this progression from copying to understanding to mastering.
This philosophy has been tested beyond tutoring. It has been validated in other fields including aviation instruction. It works because it is based on how humans actually learn, not how education companies think they should. Here at Genie Academy the focus is on how each individual child learns and catering to how they will best understand the material.
When you are comparing programs, ask this question: does the program have a documented teaching philosophy? Not a marketing slogan. A real framework that explains how they believe children learn and how their instruction is designed around that belief. At Genie Academy, the answer is yes. For a detailed explanation, you can read our teaching philosophy article.
Genie Academy offers Math, Reading, Writing, Coding, and Abacus Mental Math all under one roof. One location. One schedule. One relationship with one team that knows your child across every subject.
Our curriculum is written by the Coaches who teach it every day. It is completely aligned with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards. We give enough practice so that the child achieves mastery, not memorization. We teach them how to arrive at the answer. The only things they need to memorize are the Times Tables and basic formulae like area, volume conversions, and the Pythagorean theorem. They never need to memorize an operation.
And then there is something no other tutoring company in our market offers: Abacus Mental Math. This program builds number sense, working memory, concentration, and mathematical intuition at a level that no worksheet or open-table format can touch. It trains the brain to visualize numbers and perform calculations mentally. Students who learn on the abacus develop a fundamentally different relationship with math. They don't just solve problems. They see the math.
One of our students Olivia was an Abacus graduate admitted to MIT's Mechanical Engineering program. She credits the Abacus Mental Math program directly, saying her life would have turned out very differently without it. This is your single most powerful success story. A child who learned on the abacus and ended up at one of the most elite universities in the world.
Our curriculum is so well received that students from over 20 US states are enrolled in our online classes.
Mathnasium focuses exclusively on math. If your child needs help with reading, writing, or coding, you will need to find separate programs for each of those subjects. That means different schedules, different locations, and different bills.
At Genie Academy, it is all under one roof.
Here is a question worth asking. Does your child look forward to going to their tutoring program? Or do they dread it?
At Genie Academy, our students are more energized after class than before. That is not an exaggeration. Our Coaches engage the student's intrinsic motivation. When a child masters a concept, their confidence grows. Confidence comes from mastery. And mastery comes from structured, focused instruction in a real classroom built for learning.
Take Tristan from Somerset County. After the disruptions of COVID, he was struggling with reading, writing, and math. His mother Ashley chose Genie Academy because she wanted real teaching. At first, Tristan resisted. He didn't like being challenged. But as he started to see success, something shifted. The same child who pushed back on those early sessions started reminding his mom they were going to be late for class. He went from saying he "didn't enjoy reading or writing" to earning a spot in Claremont's prestigious Gifted and Talented Program.
That transformation does not happen by accident. It happens when a child is in the right environment with the right Coach who knows how to unlock what is already inside them.
We don't just talk about results. We document them. Our website showcases over 100 student success stories, and some of them are incredible.
Yogi was a first grader from North Brunswick whose mother Kirthika knew he had incredible potential from a very young age. She had tried another program first, but the heavy worksheet load overwhelmed him and the rote approach limited his thinking. She switched him to Genie Academy's abacus math and reading classes. Within a year and a half, Yogi was accepted into North Brunswick's Gifted and Talented Program under the SOAR curriculum. His mother noticed a clear difference. At Genie Academy, Yogi was learning the concepts behind the answers instead of just memorizing steps. His logical thinking increased dramatically.
Srinika, a nine-year-old from South Plainfield, scored in the 98th percentile on her first Gifted and Talented assessment after enrolling in Genie Academy's Abacus, Common Core Math, and Reading and Writing programs. She overcame her fears, surpassed her peers, and her parents called it one of the best decisions they have ever made.
These are not hypothetical results. These are real families. Real children. Real transformations.
Here are the numbers. Genie Academy holds a 4.8-star rating across 865 Google reviews. That is 97.3% of parents rating us 4 stars or higher. Every single one of our 7 locations is rated 4.8 or above. Our Hillsborough and Woodbridge locations hold a perfect 5.0.
In our reviews, 284 or more parents mention noticeable improvement in their child. Over 182 parents say they recommend us. Over 181 parents say their child loves coming to class. And 97 or more parents specifically mention their child's confidence growing.
Our Coaches are mentioned by name in hundreds of reviews. Parents build real relationships with the people teaching their children, and they take the time to write about it.
We encourage you to read our reviews on Google for each of our locations. Then look up Mathnasium reviews on Trustpilot, Google, and any other platform you trust. Let other parents' experiences guide your decision.
Here is what you get at Genie Academy.
Easy scheduling and unlimited free makeup. Miss a class with proper notice? Reschedule it. No penalty. No expiration. Life happens. Your child should not lose a class because of it.
Awesome and efficient customer service. Because we are not a franchise, your concerns reach decision-makers directly. Problems get solved the same day. There is no corporate-to-franchise blame game.
A parent-reviewed Coach tier system. You can read reviews from other parents before choosing your child's Coach. Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond tiers give you real data to make decisions.
Regular feedback through parent-teacher conferences every 90 to 120 days. Plus ongoing access to the Parent Portal for scheduling, homework, learning videos, and flashcards.
Multiple subjects under one roof. Math, Reading, Writing, Coding, and Abacus Mental Math. One location. One schedule. One relationship.
When you visit Mathnasium, ask for their pricing upfront. Ask about registration fees. Ask about contract length. Ask about their makeup policy.
Then compare.
With locations throughout central New Jersey, Genie Academy is the Mathnasium alternative that parents have been looking for. Find a Genie Academy near you and book your free assessment today.
Get Your Child's Free Assessment
If you are reading this, you are probably trying to figure out which after-school program is the right fit for your child. Maybe you have already looked at Mathnasium. Maybe someone in your neighborhood recommended it. That is completely fair. However, you should do your research.
Here is what we want you to know about Genie Academy so you can make the best decision for your family.
Genie Academy is not a franchise. It is owned under one corporate umbrella. Every single one of our locations in central New Jersey operates under the same leadership, the same teaching philosophy, and the same quality standards. There is no "franchise roulette" when you enroll your child. What you get at our East Brunswick location is the same thing you get at our Hillsborough location.
One company. One standard. Every location rated 4.8 stars or higher on Google.
Our business model is simple. We help you discover the genius your child was born to be, delight you with their progress so you keep them enrolled and refer your friends, and provide an engaging and financially rewarding work environment to our Coaches and staff.
Mathnasium is a franchise with over 1,200 independently owned locations. That means the experience, pricing, and quality will depend on which location you walk into. We encourage you to visit both programs and verify the following points for yourself.
At Genie Academy, we hire Coaches. Not tutors. Not part-time graders. Coaches.
Many of our Coaches have advanced degrees in various fields. But what really sets them apart is our parent review system. Parents review their child's Coach after every class. Those reviews directly impact the Coach's tier and compensation. Here is how it works.
A Coach with under 25 parent reviews is Silver tier. At 25 or more reviews, they reach Gold. At 50, Platinum. And at 100 or more five-star parent reviews, they earn Diamond tier status. Each tier comes with a pay increase, which means our best Coaches are financially rewarded for being great. And you, as a parent, have real data to help you choose the right Coach for your child.
This system does something powerful. It attracts higher-caliber educators who want to be held accountable. It rewards performance. And it gives parents transparency that simply does not exist anywhere else in the tutoring industry.
When you visit Mathnasium, ask who will be teaching your child. Ask about their qualifications. Ask how long they have been there. Ask if there is any system for parents to review and rate the staff. Then compare that to what we offer.
Genie Academy runs real classroom instruction. Here is what that looks like.
Your child walks into a classroom with a maximum of 6 students. One dedicated Coach teaches the entire session. There is a fixed start time and a fixed stop time. The lesson is structured with a clear progression. Our in-house student management app tracks student lessons and progress in real time. Depending on the child, Coaches have complete autonomy to modify lessons to speed up or slow down. The classes include built-in cognition-enhancing activities like mindful meditation, auto suggestions, games, and activities. The class is fast-paced, and the child is refreshed and energized after every class. Imagine that.
Six students maximum. One Coach. A real classroom. Structured lessons. That is our model. As a seasoned coach at Genie Academy I have experienced firsthand the benefit of having a classroom structured with activities and mindfulness. Students are more engaged and ready to learn, they always want to come back!
Mathnasium uses an open floor plan with long tables where multiple students are working with potentially a different coach. We encourage you to visit a Mathnasium location and see the learning environment for yourself. Then visit Genie Academy.
The difference will be obvious.
Every 90 to 120 days, you sit down with your child's Coach for a parent-teacher conference at Genie Academy. You get a full update on where your child stands, what they have mastered, and what comes next. I’ve found this to be one of the most useful things we do here at Genie Academy. My student’s parents are always in the know whenever there is a behavioral issue, academic issue, concept-specific issue we communicate and create a gameplan together. This has helped me create amazing connections with both my students and parents so we’re a team. This is not optional. It is built into how we operate. Our conference attendance rate is over 90%.
Between conferences, you have the Parent Portal. This is where you can track homework, review class records, access learning videos, and use digital flashcards to reinforce concepts at home. You are never in the dark about what your child is learning or how they are progressing.
And here is something that matters more than most parents realize until they experience it. Your child builds a real relationship with their Coach. The same Coach teaches them week after week. That consistency builds trust. It builds confidence. It means your child's Coach actually knows your child. Not just their math level, but how they learn, what motivates them, and when they need a push versus when they need encouragement. I’ve learned about my students' choir concerts and their aced math exams because here at Genie Academy we are consistently building our relationships with our students.
We have seen this play out hundreds of times. Parents tell us their child's Coach knows things about their learning style that even they had not noticed. That level of attention is only possible when class sizes are small, the Coach is consistent, and there is a structured feedback loop in place.
When you visit Mathnasium, ask how often you will receive formal feedback on your child's progress. Ask if there is a parent portal. Ask if the same person will be working with your child every session.
Then compare.
Genie Academy's core teaching philosophy is that anyone can learn anything. And it is not just a tagline. It is a framework built on two pillars that guide everything we do.
The first pillar is Identity Before Mastery. Before a child can master math, or reading, or writing, they need to see themselves as someone who can. We build that identity through small repeated wins, positive language, and an environment where struggle is seen as growth, not failure. A child who believes "I am a math person" will approach a challenging problem differently than a child who has been told, or has told themselves, "I'm just not good at math."
I have seen this with most of my students the confidence shift that occurs when we shift the identity. Many students walk into a subject they struggle with assuming they’re “bad at it” and “it’s just not my thing.” One thing we prioritize at Genie Academy is helping your child understand they can be a math person or reading person or any person they want.
The second pillar is Shu Ha Ri, a staged learning approach borrowed from Japanese martial arts. In the first stage, Shu, you learn the rules. You copy. You repeat until it becomes muscle memory. In the second stage, Ha, you understand the principles well enough to modify and adapt. In the third stage, Ri, you transcend the rules entirely and create your own methods. Our curriculum follows this progression from copying to understanding to mastering.
This philosophy has been tested beyond tutoring. It has been validated in other fields including aviation instruction. It works because it is based on how humans actually learn, not how education companies think they should. Here at Genie Academy the focus is on how each individual child learns and catering to how they will best understand the material.
When you are comparing programs, ask this question: does the program have a documented teaching philosophy? Not a marketing slogan. A real framework that explains how they believe children learn and how their instruction is designed around that belief. At Genie Academy, the answer is yes. For a detailed explanation, you can read our teaching philosophy article.
Genie Academy offers Math, Reading, Writing, Coding, and Abacus Mental Math all under one roof. One location. One schedule. One relationship with one team that knows your child across every subject.
Our curriculum is written by the Coaches who teach it every day. It is completely aligned with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards. We give enough practice so that the child achieves mastery, not memorization. We teach them how to arrive at the answer. The only things they need to memorize are the Times Tables and basic formulae like area, volume conversions, and the Pythagorean theorem. They never need to memorize an operation.
And then there is something no other tutoring company in our market offers: Abacus Mental Math. This program builds number sense, working memory, concentration, and mathematical intuition at a level that no worksheet or open-table format can touch. It trains the brain to visualize numbers and perform calculations mentally. Students who learn on the abacus develop a fundamentally different relationship with math. They don't just solve problems. They see the math.
One of our students Olivia was an Abacus graduate admitted to MIT's Mechanical Engineering program. She credits the Abacus Mental Math program directly, saying her life would have turned out very differently without it. This is your single most powerful success story. A child who learned on the abacus and ended up at one of the most elite universities in the world.
Our curriculum is so well received that students from over 20 US states are enrolled in our online classes.
Mathnasium focuses exclusively on math. If your child needs help with reading, writing, or coding, you will need to find separate programs for each of those subjects. That means different schedules, different locations, and different bills.
At Genie Academy, it is all under one roof.
Here is a question worth asking. Does your child look forward to going to their tutoring program? Or do they dread it?
At Genie Academy, our students are more energized after class than before. That is not an exaggeration. Our Coaches engage the student's intrinsic motivation. When a child masters a concept, their confidence grows. Confidence comes from mastery. And mastery comes from structured, focused instruction in a real classroom built for learning.
Take Tristan from Somerset County. After the disruptions of COVID, he was struggling with reading, writing, and math. His mother Ashley chose Genie Academy because she wanted real teaching. At first, Tristan resisted. He didn't like being challenged. But as he started to see success, something shifted. The same child who pushed back on those early sessions started reminding his mom they were going to be late for class. He went from saying he "didn't enjoy reading or writing" to earning a spot in Claremont's prestigious Gifted and Talented Program.
That transformation does not happen by accident. It happens when a child is in the right environment with the right Coach who knows how to unlock what is already inside them.
We don't just talk about results. We document them. Our website showcases over 100 student success stories, and some of them are incredible.
Yogi was a first grader from North Brunswick whose mother Kirthika knew he had incredible potential from a very young age. She had tried another program first, but the heavy worksheet load overwhelmed him and the rote approach limited his thinking. She switched him to Genie Academy's abacus math and reading classes. Within a year and a half, Yogi was accepted into North Brunswick's Gifted and Talented Program under the SOAR curriculum. His mother noticed a clear difference. At Genie Academy, Yogi was learning the concepts behind the answers instead of just memorizing steps. His logical thinking increased dramatically.
Srinika, a nine-year-old from South Plainfield, scored in the 98th percentile on her first Gifted and Talented assessment after enrolling in Genie Academy's Abacus, Common Core Math, and Reading and Writing programs. She overcame her fears, surpassed her peers, and her parents called it one of the best decisions they have ever made.
These are not hypothetical results. These are real families. Real children. Real transformations.
Here are the numbers. Genie Academy holds a 4.8-star rating across 865 Google reviews. That is 97.3% of parents rating us 4 stars or higher. Every single one of our 7 locations is rated 4.8 or above. Our Hillsborough and Woodbridge locations hold a perfect 5.0.
In our reviews, 284 or more parents mention noticeable improvement in their child. Over 182 parents say they recommend us. Over 181 parents say their child loves coming to class. And 97 or more parents specifically mention their child's confidence growing.
Our Coaches are mentioned by name in hundreds of reviews. Parents build real relationships with the people teaching their children, and they take the time to write about it.
We encourage you to read our reviews on Google for each of our locations. Then look up Mathnasium reviews on Trustpilot, Google, and any other platform you trust. Let other parents' experiences guide your decision.
Here is what you get at Genie Academy.
Easy scheduling and unlimited free makeup. Miss a class with proper notice? Reschedule it. No penalty. No expiration. Life happens. Your child should not lose a class because of it.
Awesome and efficient customer service. Because we are not a franchise, your concerns reach decision-makers directly. Problems get solved the same day. There is no corporate-to-franchise blame game.
A parent-reviewed Coach tier system. You can read reviews from other parents before choosing your child's Coach. Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond tiers give you real data to make decisions.
Regular feedback through parent-teacher conferences every 90 to 120 days. Plus ongoing access to the Parent Portal for scheduling, homework, learning videos, and flashcards.
Multiple subjects under one roof. Math, Reading, Writing, Coding, and Abacus Mental Math. One location. One schedule. One relationship.
When you visit Mathnasium, ask for their pricing upfront. Ask about registration fees. Ask about contract length. Ask about their makeup policy.
Then compare.
With locations throughout central New Jersey, Genie Academy is the Mathnasium alternative that parents have been looking for. Find a Genie Academy near you and book your free assessment today.
Get Your Child's Free Assessment
If you are reading this, you are probably trying to figure out which after-school program is the right fit for your child. Maybe you have already looked at Mathnasium. Maybe someone in your neighborhood recommended it. That is completely fair. However, you should do your research.
Here is what we want you to know about Genie Academy so you can make the best decision for your family.
Genie Academy is not a franchise. It is owned under one corporate umbrella. Every single one of our locations in central New Jersey operates under the same leadership, the same teaching philosophy, and the same quality standards. There is no "franchise roulette" when you enroll your child. What you get at our East Brunswick location is the same thing you get at our Hillsborough location.
One company. One standard. Every location rated 4.8 stars or higher on Google.
Our business model is simple. We help you discover the genius your child was born to be, delight you with their progress so you keep them enrolled and refer your friends, and provide an engaging and financially rewarding work environment to our Coaches and staff.
Mathnasium is a franchise with over 1,200 independently owned locations. That means the experience, pricing, and quality will depend on which location you walk into. We encourage you to visit both programs and verify the following points for yourself.
At Genie Academy, we hire Coaches. Not tutors. Not part-time graders. Coaches.
Many of our Coaches have advanced degrees in various fields. But what really sets them apart is our parent review system. Parents review their child's Coach after every class. Those reviews directly impact the Coach's tier and compensation. Here is how it works.
A Coach with under 25 parent reviews is Silver tier. At 25 or more reviews, they reach Gold. At 50, Platinum. And at 100 or more five-star parent reviews, they earn Diamond tier status. Each tier comes with a pay increase, which means our best Coaches are financially rewarded for being great. And you, as a parent, have real data to help you choose the right Coach for your child.
This system does something powerful. It attracts higher-caliber educators who want to be held accountable. It rewards performance. And it gives parents transparency that simply does not exist anywhere else in the tutoring industry.
When you visit Mathnasium, ask who will be teaching your child. Ask about their qualifications. Ask how long they have been there. Ask if there is any system for parents to review and rate the staff. Then compare that to what we offer.
Genie Academy runs real classroom instruction. Here is what that looks like.
Your child walks into a classroom with a maximum of 6 students. One dedicated Coach teaches the entire session. There is a fixed start time and a fixed stop time. The lesson is structured with a clear progression. Our in-house student management app tracks student lessons and progress in real time. Depending on the child, Coaches have complete autonomy to modify lessons to speed up or slow down. The classes include built-in cognition-enhancing activities like mindful meditation, auto suggestions, games, and activities. The class is fast-paced, and the child is refreshed and energized after every class. Imagine that.
Six students maximum. One Coach. A real classroom. Structured lessons. That is our model. As a seasoned coach at Genie Academy I have experienced firsthand the benefit of having a classroom structured with activities and mindfulness. Students are more engaged and ready to learn, they always want to come back!
Mathnasium uses an open floor plan with long tables where multiple students are working with potentially a different coach. We encourage you to visit a Mathnasium location and see the learning environment for yourself. Then visit Genie Academy.
The difference will be obvious.
Every 90 to 120 days, you sit down with your child's Coach for a parent-teacher conference at Genie Academy. You get a full update on where your child stands, what they have mastered, and what comes next. I’ve found this to be one of the most useful things we do here at Genie Academy. My student’s parents are always in the know whenever there is a behavioral issue, academic issue, concept-specific issue we communicate and create a gameplan together. This has helped me create amazing connections with both my students and parents so we’re a team. This is not optional. It is built into how we operate. Our conference attendance rate is over 90%.
Between conferences, you have the Parent Portal. This is where you can track homework, review class records, access learning videos, and use digital flashcards to reinforce concepts at home. You are never in the dark about what your child is learning or how they are progressing.
And here is something that matters more than most parents realize until they experience it. Your child builds a real relationship with their Coach. The same Coach teaches them week after week. That consistency builds trust. It builds confidence. It means your child's Coach actually knows your child. Not just their math level, but how they learn, what motivates them, and when they need a push versus when they need encouragement. I’ve learned about my students' choir concerts and their aced math exams because here at Genie Academy we are consistently building our relationships with our students.
We have seen this play out hundreds of times. Parents tell us their child's Coach knows things about their learning style that even they had not noticed. That level of attention is only possible when class sizes are small, the Coach is consistent, and there is a structured feedback loop in place.
When you visit Mathnasium, ask how often you will receive formal feedback on your child's progress. Ask if there is a parent portal. Ask if the same person will be working with your child every session.
Then compare.
Genie Academy's core teaching philosophy is that anyone can learn anything. And it is not just a tagline. It is a framework built on two pillars that guide everything we do.
The first pillar is Identity Before Mastery. Before a child can master math, or reading, or writing, they need to see themselves as someone who can. We build that identity through small repeated wins, positive language, and an environment where struggle is seen as growth, not failure. A child who believes "I am a math person" will approach a challenging problem differently than a child who has been told, or has told themselves, "I'm just not good at math."
I have seen this with most of my students the confidence shift that occurs when we shift the identity. Many students walk into a subject they struggle with assuming they’re “bad at it” and “it’s just not my thing.” One thing we prioritize at Genie Academy is helping your child understand they can be a math person or reading person or any person they want.
The second pillar is Shu Ha Ri, a staged learning approach borrowed from Japanese martial arts. In the first stage, Shu, you learn the rules. You copy. You repeat until it becomes muscle memory. In the second stage, Ha, you understand the principles well enough to modify and adapt. In the third stage, Ri, you transcend the rules entirely and create your own methods. Our curriculum follows this progression from copying to understanding to mastering.
This philosophy has been tested beyond tutoring. It has been validated in other fields including aviation instruction. It works because it is based on how humans actually learn, not how education companies think they should. Here at Genie Academy the focus is on how each individual child learns and catering to how they will best understand the material.
When you are comparing programs, ask this question: does the program have a documented teaching philosophy? Not a marketing slogan. A real framework that explains how they believe children learn and how their instruction is designed around that belief. At Genie Academy, the answer is yes. For a detailed explanation, you can read our teaching philosophy article.
Genie Academy offers Math, Reading, Writing, Coding, and Abacus Mental Math all under one roof. One location. One schedule. One relationship with one team that knows your child across every subject.
Our curriculum is written by the Coaches who teach it every day. It is completely aligned with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards. We give enough practice so that the child achieves mastery, not memorization. We teach them how to arrive at the answer. The only things they need to memorize are the Times Tables and basic formulae like area, volume conversions, and the Pythagorean theorem. They never need to memorize an operation.
And then there is something no other tutoring company in our market offers: Abacus Mental Math. This program builds number sense, working memory, concentration, and mathematical intuition at a level that no worksheet or open-table format can touch. It trains the brain to visualize numbers and perform calculations mentally. Students who learn on the abacus develop a fundamentally different relationship with math. They don't just solve problems. They see the math.
One of our students Olivia was an Abacus graduate admitted to MIT's Mechanical Engineering program. She credits the Abacus Mental Math program directly, saying her life would have turned out very differently without it. This is your single most powerful success story. A child who learned on the abacus and ended up at one of the most elite universities in the world.
Our curriculum is so well received that students from over 20 US states are enrolled in our online classes.
Mathnasium focuses exclusively on math. If your child needs help with reading, writing, or coding, you will need to find separate programs for each of those subjects. That means different schedules, different locations, and different bills.
At Genie Academy, it is all under one roof.
Here is a question worth asking. Does your child look forward to going to their tutoring program? Or do they dread it?
At Genie Academy, our students are more energized after class than before. That is not an exaggeration. Our Coaches engage the student's intrinsic motivation. When a child masters a concept, their confidence grows. Confidence comes from mastery. And mastery comes from structured, focused instruction in a real classroom built for learning.
Take Tristan from Somerset County. After the disruptions of COVID, he was struggling with reading, writing, and math. His mother Ashley chose Genie Academy because she wanted real teaching. At first, Tristan resisted. He didn't like being challenged. But as he started to see success, something shifted. The same child who pushed back on those early sessions started reminding his mom they were going to be late for class. He went from saying he "didn't enjoy reading or writing" to earning a spot in Claremont's prestigious Gifted and Talented Program.
That transformation does not happen by accident. It happens when a child is in the right environment with the right Coach who knows how to unlock what is already inside them.
We don't just talk about results. We document them. Our website showcases over 100 student success stories, and some of them are incredible.
Yogi was a first grader from North Brunswick whose mother Kirthika knew he had incredible potential from a very young age. She had tried another program first, but the heavy worksheet load overwhelmed him and the rote approach limited his thinking. She switched him to Genie Academy's abacus math and reading classes. Within a year and a half, Yogi was accepted into North Brunswick's Gifted and Talented Program under the SOAR curriculum. His mother noticed a clear difference. At Genie Academy, Yogi was learning the concepts behind the answers instead of just memorizing steps. His logical thinking increased dramatically.
Srinika, a nine-year-old from South Plainfield, scored in the 98th percentile on her first Gifted and Talented assessment after enrolling in Genie Academy's Abacus, Common Core Math, and Reading and Writing programs. She overcame her fears, surpassed her peers, and her parents called it one of the best decisions they have ever made.
These are not hypothetical results. These are real families. Real children. Real transformations.
Here are the numbers. Genie Academy holds a 4.8-star rating across 865 Google reviews. That is 97.3% of parents rating us 4 stars or higher. Every single one of our 7 locations is rated 4.8 or above. Our Hillsborough and Woodbridge locations hold a perfect 5.0.
In our reviews, 284 or more parents mention noticeable improvement in their child. Over 182 parents say they recommend us. Over 181 parents say their child loves coming to class. And 97 or more parents specifically mention their child's confidence growing.
Our Coaches are mentioned by name in hundreds of reviews. Parents build real relationships with the people teaching their children, and they take the time to write about it.
We encourage you to read our reviews on Google for each of our locations. Then look up Mathnasium reviews on Trustpilot, Google, and any other platform you trust. Let other parents' experiences guide your decision.
Here is what you get at Genie Academy.
Easy scheduling and unlimited free makeup. Miss a class with proper notice? Reschedule it. No penalty. No expiration. Life happens. Your child should not lose a class because of it.
Awesome and efficient customer service. Because we are not a franchise, your concerns reach decision-makers directly. Problems get solved the same day. There is no corporate-to-franchise blame game.
A parent-reviewed Coach tier system. You can read reviews from other parents before choosing your child's Coach. Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond tiers give you real data to make decisions.
Regular feedback through parent-teacher conferences every 90 to 120 days. Plus ongoing access to the Parent Portal for scheduling, homework, learning videos, and flashcards.
Multiple subjects under one roof. Math, Reading, Writing, Coding, and Abacus Mental Math. One location. One schedule. One relationship.
When you visit Mathnasium, ask for their pricing upfront. Ask about registration fees. Ask about contract length. Ask about their makeup policy.
Then compare.
With locations throughout central New Jersey, Genie Academy is the Mathnasium alternative that parents have been looking for. Find a Genie Academy near you and book your free assessment today.
Get Your Child's Free Assessment
Discover Genie Academy's positive impact on our students through parents' eyes. This section features interviews, detailed reviews, and testimonials that showcase parents' positive experiences with our programs. Learn how Genie Academy has improved academic performance, boosted confidence, and fostered a love for learning among students.
✔ Easy Scheduling and makeups.
✔ Awesome & Efficient customer service
✔ Quality control program.
✔ Regular feedback
✔ Parent Teacher conferences every 90-120 days
✔ Parent Portal scheduling, homework, Curriculum
With locations throughout New Jersey, Genie Academy is a fitting Kumon alternative near you. Find a Genie Academy location closest to you, including East Brunswick, Hillsborough, Marlboro, South Brunswick, Plainsboro, and South Plainfield.
This information was gathered from interviews with parents, students, and other sources. Mathnasium is a registered trademark of its respective owners. The information provided on this page is for general informational purposes only. While we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, Genie Academy makes no warranties or representations regarding the completeness, reliability, or accuracy of the information. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk. Genie Academy is not affiliated with Mathnasium or any other third-party educational programs mentioned on this page. The comparisons made are based on publicly available information and subjective analysis. For specific details about any educational program, please refer to the respective official sources.
Our team will evaluate your child to discover their strengths and weaknesses and provide an in-depth recommendation outline of what they need to ensure that they will succeed.
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