The Friends are a separate nonprofit from the library, usually run by volunteers. They can also accept donations from the public, keeping books out of dumpsters. They organize regular book sales which are generally popular with the reading public.
https://action.everylibrary.org/from_book_sales_to_big_impac...
If you think that books should be kept out of the landfill or the shredder, please consider starting a Friends group for your local library.
https://www.ala.org/united/friends
> In my head, this looks more like a math circle or enrichment workshop than a school. The idea is a small group, maybe 6–8 students.
You're correct, this sounds more like an after-school math club.
> I loved olympiad-style problems. The non-trivial ones. The kind where you sit with a problem for an hour, try three wrong approaches, and then something clicks. That feeling. I’d like kids to experience that early.
Math Kangaroo holds a competition every year. Their question papers for the past several years are available for sale.
You can take a look at some of the questions from last year's exam and see if they fit into your categories of patterns, creative geometry, etc:
https://mathkangaroo.org/mks/practice/free-question-samples/https://www.thethinkacademy.com/blog/2025-math-kangaroo-real...
If so, you can base your math club on solving these problems, or analogous ones that you come up with yourself.
> The focus wouldn’t be speed or grades, but depth and alternative approaches.
You can use educational toys from the company Learning Resources. They help to provide materials that children can hold and manipulate in their hands, establishing a neural pathway to abstract thinking for the same concept.
For example, here is one that uses pegs and rubber bands to teach concepts in shapes, symmetry, angles, and fractions:
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Double-Sided-Assor...
> We’d explore [...] strategy, [...] maybe even some early economics and decision theory.
There are board game cafes where you can drop in to see the latest craze.
> If you were building this as an MVP: 1. Would you pilot a short 4–6 week program? 2. What age group would you target 3. How much curriculum do you design before you start?
Take a look at the Brain Quest Workbooks (8 book series) and get an idea of the general curriculum prescribed at each level Pre-K through Grade 6.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09D7ZJPG4
> 4. How important are credentials vs demonstrated ability?
There are many organizations that provide STEAM-oriented after-school enrichment classes to school children. You can contact them and see if you could work with them, offering your uniquely designed curriculum. You could build up your ability to teach while conducting the classes. At the same time, you could enroll in online classes for teacher training to build up your credentials.
> If you’ve started a math circle, tutoring program, micro-school or anything similar, I’d really appreciate hearing what worked, what didn’t, and what you wish you’d known at the beginning.
I got dwarf tomato plants this year, my very first attempt at growing tomatoes or any other vegetables for that matter. I'm growing them in containers on my patio. So far, they have sprouted two tiny green tomatoes each and, for now, they don't need a cage to support the growth.
The Friends are a separate nonprofit from the library, usually run by volunteers. They can also accept donations from the public, keeping books out of dumpsters. They organize regular book sales which are generally popular with the reading public. https://action.everylibrary.org/from_book_sales_to_big_impac...
If you think that books should be kept out of the landfill or the shredder, please consider starting a Friends group for your local library. https://www.ala.org/united/friends
National Friends of Libraries Week is usually the third week of October every year. https://www.ala.org/united/events_conferences/folweek