About Us
Our Mission
Welcome to our G.A.M.E!
We are the founders of the company, Maria and David. We both are professionals who quit day jobs to become the main caregivers to children in our families. Our expertise is in engineering, science, construction and teaching. We believe that education is crucial for success in life, but we also find great joy in learning new things and sharing the knowledge with others, especially children!
With our own kids at public schools, we see that the system struggles to meet the diverse needs of all students. While striving to not leave any child behind, it unintentionally hinders motivated students from moving ahead to more challenging topics. Often such kids feel that the class pace is too slow for them, and needlessly repeat material they’ve already mastered. They become bored, disengaged and lose motivation to reach their full learning potential. Some families choose to send their children to private schools, but that’s not always an option. We offer an alternative for the children who want to learn more!
Let your kids explore the fascinating worlds of mathematics and engineering with us!
We design our courses to introduce advanced topics in math and physics with fun hands-on experiments and engaging activities for the children. We use math as a tool to solve interesting problems rather than make students go through boring worksheets. This approach helps children to view math as a key to science, technology, and analyzing the world around them — not just to pass tests.
Our Team
Our instructors have a mix of in-classroom and practical hands-on industry experience, are background checked via Live Scan, have Pediatric first Aid training including CPR & AED, and love working with kids.
David Holl, Ph.D.
I enjoy a broad range of interests across math, science, and engineering and apply those interests to tackle challenges like tracking firefighters lost within burning buildings, making 3-D images from radio and sound reflections, optimizing Internet protocols over satellite links, and designing my own radio signal processors. I’m adept at software engineering and freely mix & match different tools to resolve challenges at hand, such as decades-old shell scripting and compute clusters, to modern Python and C++ template metaprogramming with computer graphics cards for ridiculously fast math processing.
Over the years from most recent to least, I’ve worked as a part-time science instructor for Lafayette School District, run my own company, worked as a member of the technical staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, taught as an adjunct assistant professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, had internships at Intel Corporation with their chip architects to work on encryption & data compression, and single-handedly administered 300 lab & office computers at a university engineering department while supporting their 800 students and 25 faculty. I hold a Ph.D. degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
My long-term love is teaching, and aside from raising 3 daughters, my happiest endeavors are sharing the fun of learning. I love the challenge of breaking down complex ideas into simpler pieces, and motivating kids to have fun learning, because once they’re fired up, they’ll teach themselves far faster than anyone else could!
Maria Williford
My background is in engineering and arts, and I graduated from Saint-Petersburg State Marine University in Russia, 2001 (with honors). After that, I worked in construction and historical buildings restoration as an architect and a drafter. Additionally, I am also a sailor with over 5000 nautical miles ocean sailing experience, which means I have a practical knowledge of applied physics, navigation, meteorology, and geography, as well as advanced technical skills. I've done a lot of technical hands-on projects in construction, woodworking, metal working, mechanical, electrical and hydraulic fields.
I am also a mom of two children (3rd and 6th graders now). Since my kids’ first years at school, I have been volunteering there as a room parent, classroom and library helper, made annual festival art installations etc., but my favorite times were helping out in the science classroom. For the 2023-2024 school year, I successfully homeschooled my kids for their 2nd and 5th grades during the family sailing voyage from Northern California to Central America.
Aside from volunteering at school, my experience working with groups of children comes from several years of being a part of a cooperative daycare, Lafayette Nursery School. My duties were to help teachers in the classroom with arts, crafts, food and science activities with children as well as supervising their outdoor playtime.
I love being around children, encouraging their natural curiosity, helping them learn new things and grow academically and personally!