Through the TOS Crew, my family received a CTCMath
Homeschool Membership from CTCMath. I want to start off by telling you
that originally I was not at all happy about this BUT MAN ALIVE! I AM SO GLAD we got to try this out!
We have tried out a few different math programs and I was
getting tired of trying things out with all great hopes just to hate it in the
end…. Or at least not like it enough to want to keep using it.
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| clip of the video teaching |
When reading about CTC I was kinda like “blah- blah- blah- blah- blah”. I
should have been more excited though. CTCMath
has complete math courses for K-12th grade. It boast’s over 1,400 online tutorials for
your student to learn from either as enrichment or along with each lesson. Each
lesson video is no more than 5 min!
CTCMath offers the following math courses:
·
Kindergarten
·
1st Grade
·
2nd Grade
·
3rd Grade
·
4th Grade
·
5th Grade
·
6th Grade
·
Basic Math and Pre-Algebra
·
Elementary Measurement
·
Elementary Geometry
·
Algebra I
·
Pre-Calculus
·
Calculus
·
Algebra II
·
Geometry
·
Trigonometry
For an overview of what is covered in each level CTCMath has a great downloadable lesson
list for all grades. It’s
located about halfway down the FAQ page. There is also a great video at the top of the
page explaining what CTCMath is. This
program IS NOT COMMON CORE, has assessment tests, keeps track of all the
grading for you, and that is only the beginning!
CTCMath can be used on your computers, iPod, iPads, and
iPhones, and Android devices. This makes it so much easier for students to be
able to actually get to math! The
company is always refining the program too, so if you don’t see something you
want, chances are, they will add it!
Lesson videos, of course, need to be watched on line but
worksheets can be done online or printed out and then answers can be imputed
online. My kids work out the problems on
scratch paper but do all the lessons online. They get up to 3 tries
to get it right and you can set what percentage they need to be passing. We have ours set at 80%
The parents and
students have separate accounts/logins.
All student account filter through the parent account. Parents can easily access their child's
progress and even have weekly updates sent to their email.
CTCMath makes
tracking your child's overall progress very easy. Once you are logged in you
are can look at your student's daily activity which includes when they logged
in, how long they were logged in for and what they worked on.
You can view how
many attempts your child took in order to answer each question. Edit or reset
things they didn’t pass. See everything
they did pass, awards earned, etc, etc…. HA!
I wasn’t sure who
all in my house was going to like it and who wouldn’t. I had a few kids in mind though that I really
wanted to try it with. The main being F17g. She stalled out with Algebra 1 and actually
back-slid and then has pain stakingly been trying to find her gap and move back
up.
CTCMath has been great for her and let
me tell you why =)
1. You login and choose the grade level you want
to work in.
2. The program breaks down each grade levels
concepts into sections.
3. Choose the section and take the diagnostic
test.
4. You will then get a score and detailed list of
how you did.
5. You can use the list to go into the lessons in
that section and learn in the areas you have gaps!
6. Thus enabling you to move forward! You know exactly what you have mastered and
what you do not =)
Besides F17g.
I also had all of my other kids 6th grade on up try it. A11b quickly decided it was not for him-
fine, no worries. All of the other kids
love it! They like it as much as they
like TT (different pro’s and cons) and they all like it the same or better than
Khan (again different pro’s and cons.
Here is what they think:
F17g: I
like how the format is basic. That makes
it easy to navigate. I like that the
lessons are very clear in how they are taught.
The diagnostic test was helpful for me to locate some gaps that I
had. There are some things I didn’t like,
not enough to make me stop using the program, but they did make things kind of
annoying. My Mom covers those in a
minute so I won’t here. Over-all I love
CTCMath though. It has been instrumental
in me figuring out what I wasn’t getting and being able to catch up.
A16g:
Awesome. They do a really good
job teaching. I like that the lessons
are short and the problems you do to practice are exactly like the lesson. If they add a new component, then you get a
new lessons and new problems to work through.
And I really like the feedback the diagnostic test gave me.
H15g:
It’s a very good program. I like
how the lessons go exactly with the problems.
I think its fun listening to the guy teaching because he is from
Australia. I appreciate that the program
is very clean. It’s easy to navigate
where you are going and to understand exactly what you worked on and how you
did.
JO14b:
I like it. I like have the
sections to work with and the diagnostic tests.
Although I don’t really get how they work all their score
percentages. I think the lessons are
easy to understand.
C12b: I
like that its very clean and easy to navigate.
It’s kind of like Teaching textbooks and Khan academy shoved
together. I like the lessons a lot. They are easy to understand and I like the
instant feedback on how I did.
CH11g:
I really like it a lot. I feel
like I am accomplishing more on this program that I do on Khan. I like being able to see what I have mastered
and what I haven’t in a very easy and clear way.
Now…. What we wish was different:
1. Some of the older kid lessons do not have the
option to do the problems online. The
only option is to use the worksheet, find the answers on there and input them
online. My kids don’t like that and
neither do I.
2. You can’t just “set” the program to remember
what grade the student is in. Instead,
everytime you log in, you have to choose
he grade level you want to work in.
This is also true if you want to look at test results or lessons,
etc. You have to choose your grade
level.
3. We really are not sure whats going on with the
percentages. If you take the test on Monday
but don’t finish it that day it will hold your spot and give you a score based
upon everything you have already done and whats left to be done. Then on Tuesday let’s say you log in, pick
back up where you left off, and finish it, well now you have a new log and a
new score. We have no clue whats going
on. Did the new score factor in
yesterdays work? Because it looks like
the student should have gotten a better score.
4. After you take the diagnostic test it tells
you what you have mastered and what you have not- perfect. But then if you go into “lessons” and look at
the identical list to the diagnostic it will not show anything. I wish your results would show up there so
that you knew where to start at. I had
to manually in put the information.
5. It does not generate a “task” list for
you. So we did not use that. Instead my kids would just keep moving
through from one thing to another in the way they show up under the
lessons. I wish the program would have generated
the task list based off of the
diagnostic test for us.
I feel like I am missing a couple little
things…. Bugs if you will. None of these
things completely broke all the positives but they were big enough that we
wanted to mention them. Every program
has its… bugs. I haven’t found the
PERFECT one YET but this is pretty close ;)
To read more
reviews check out the other CREW REVIEWS!
They have several different levels of difficulty and different
designs to choose from, including a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Periodic Table, Statue
of Liberty, and Rainbow Pencils. I chose
the Solar System puzzle, which is a level 2 (which makes it a little more
effort to complete). I figured this
would be a great starting point for the majority of my kids.
First impressions were fantastic! The puzzle is contained so there is no way we
will loose the pieces, the plastic is solid and of good quality. The puzzle picture has super bright colors, is
a great print job and looks like it will last forever. The “arm” is secure and doesn’t seem like it
would be easily broken.
It worked well taking it with us in the car, kids playing on a
rainy day, and I image it would be great for long trips. One thing my kids did with it that they
enjoyed was “racing” each other to see who could solve it the fastest. They took turns and kept time scores. Even my Husband found it and couldn’t put it
down until he solved it.
