Our Family

Our Family

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Homeschool Crew Review: CTCMath

CTCMath

CTCMath is an online math curriculum that starts with kindergarten and goes all the way through the upper levels of high school math.  They offer a Single Membership or a Family Membership.  Over the last few weeks we have had an opportunity to use and review the Family Membership from CTCMath.  They offer a free trial and homeschoolers can get 60% off plus a bonus 6 months.

CTCMath
CTCMath is a complete curriculum for grades K-8.  Starting at grade 9 it is recommended to be used as a supplement.  A subscription to CTCMath gives you access to all of the grades and you can move between grades as you need to. You also have the ability to move through the program in the recommended order or pick and choose which topics to study.  You can use this program on a computer but it works on tablets as well.  CTCMath has over 1400 different math lessons and over 57000 interactive questions.

Each lesson starts with a video lesson taught by Australian teacher Pat Murray.  The length of the video varies but all of the elementary lessons we have viewed have been under 5 minutes long.  The video gives a couple of problems and shows them being worked out. At the end of the video students are wished good luck with their questions.


Then they move on to answering the questions based on the lesson.

Students are given immediate feedback after attempting the questions.  A green check mark shows up if it is correct or a red X if the answer is incorrect.  The correct answer is also shown.

After finishing all of the questions, they are shown all of the questions with the correct answers and their percentage.

A bar graph shows the percentages for each lesson completed.  Students earn Platinum, Silver, and Bronze awards as they complete lessons.

Parents have a separate log in that allows them to see exactly what their child has worked on.  They can even see how long it took them to complete the lesson.  Weekly reports are also emailed to the parent.

I have been using the Family Membership over the last several weeks.  Emmie is in first grade and has been using CTCMath as her main math curriculum.  I have also been using it as a supplement for my 10 and 12 year olds, choosing topics that they struggle in and having them work on those 1-2 days per week.

One of the things I like about CTCMath is that you are given access to all grades rather then being  locked into a specific grade level.  So if you start your child in a particular grade level and they start off doing well but find it becomes too difficult you can switch them to a lower grade, or if it becomes too easy you can move to a higher grade.  I really like that you can move through the program how you choose.  For Emmie we are following along with the recommended order, but for Anthony and Christian we skipped forward to the multiplication lessons because that is where they have the most math difficulty.

The lessons are short and to the point.  The voice on the lessons is easy to listen to and understand.  I love the visual aspect of the lessons.  In the multiplication lessons I thought it was a great idea that they covered up the number not being used and wondered why  had never thought of that.  The immediate feedback is great for children so they know right away if they have the answer correct or not. I also like how easy it is for them to see their progress and also for parents to see exactly how the child is doing.  I sit with Emmie every day when she completes her lessons so I know exactly how she is doing, but with older children they can log in themselves and do the work on their own so it is so helpful to be able to easily access the reports.

To see what my Crew Mates had to say, stop by the Crew Blog!




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