Oh! I strongly suspect we have very different views on "hard math" - I think that I am in the running for "Most Frequent Math Commenter and Poster With Very Little Math Training." What is hard for me is probably not hard for most of the math-y people here. What I mean by "hard math" I should have defined better. For my kid who can mutliply two digit numbers, finding 25x25 is not hard. However, identifying a pattern of how to quickly calculate 35x35 or 24x24 etc. is "Hard Math". In my mind "hard math" is something that can't be solved with a calculator - something you need to think about and be creative to solve - no matter what basic skills you are starting with.

I've written about this elsewhere - but for anyone reading this and thinking about homeschool math - I think that Beast Academy introduces "hard" concepts at a much earlier stage and I love that.