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CTCMath Review

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If you are looking for online math curriculum for your kids, or a supplement to the math curriculum you are already using, then you might want to check out a Family Membership to CTCMath.

CTCMath

Family Membership

Online Subscription

1,400 Math Lessons

Access

24/7/365

At Your Convenience

CTCMath is an online Math Curriculum and Math Supplement program with over 1,400 Video Tutorial Lessons in all grade course levels.  Video lessons are taught by Pat Murray and he has a very pleasant easy to understand voice with an Australian accent.  Every lesson has a tutorial video, a written lesson summary, questions, and quizzes.

Math Courses & Lessons:

CTCMATH has courses for every grade level include:

Elementary Grades:

  • Kindergarten
  • First Grade
  • Second Grade
  • Third Grade
  • Fourth Grade
  • Fifth Grade
  • Sixth Grade

Middle School Grades:

  • Basic Math
  • Pre-Algebra
  • Elementary Measurement
  • Elementary Geometry

High School Grades:

  • Algebra 1
  • Algebra 2
  • Triganometry
  • Geometry
  • Calculus

As you can see from the above grade course list, they have something for every age level.  Lesson lengths for the various grade level courses varies.  For example an Elementary School lesson might consist of a 2 to 4 minute video, and then another 5 – 15 minutes of problems to complete.   The Middle School and High School lessons might include a 4 to 10 minute video, and then the assignment problems might take another 10 to 30 minutes to complete depending on the level of difficulty.

Video Example 2nd Grade:

Summary Example 2nd Grade:

Video Example 3rd Grade:

Summary Example 3rd Grade:

Video Example Geometry:

Summary of Elementary Geometry Lesson:

CTCMath offers both monthly and yearly memebership options.  You can subscribe to CTCMath for one individual student, or get a subscription membership for the entire family for one low price.  See the current special at the time of writing this review at the bottom of this post.

Parents are kept informed of their student’s progress every step of the way.  Parents have their own dashboard in addition to the student’s dashboard.  In addition to checking on student progress, parents can make changes to assignment tasks and more if desired.  Parents are also sent progress emails and weekly summary reports.

Our Experience

We have been using CTCMath since we were first introduced to it three years ago.  It is an audio visual online math program and it has greatly helped my kids (who learn better with audio visual courses than text book courses) math scores improve.  The various CTCMath course levels my kids have used over the past several years include:

  • Kindgergarten
  • First Grade
  • Second Grade
  • Third Grade
  • Fourth Grade
  • Fifth Grade
  • Sixth Grade
  • Basic Math PreAlgebra
  • Elementary Geometry
  • Algebra

I was very excited to learn that we would be reviewing this program this fall for the The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Review Crew.  Though we have a paid subscription to CTCMath, we were also sent a new Family Membership 1 Year Subscription for the purpose of writing this review and they added the additional time onto our current subscription.  The folks at CTCMath are very easy to talk to and you can always email them with any questions or needs you have.

All of our kids use CTCMath as their main math curriculum.  Our oldest kids have used the program the longest, since 2014, and our younger kids have used it for about two years, and the youngest son who is 5 years old, is just starting out.  Kids can move around to different grade levels if they choose.  If one level is to difficult, you can go back to the previous level and build those skills needed to be ready for the next level.  You can also move ahead if a level is too easy or if your kids already have learned those skills.  There is an optional placement test with suggestions if you wish for your kids to take the test, CTCMath will offer suggestions about where they have mastered certain skills and where they still need more work in a specific level.

Also I have tried out several of the lessons myself in the past as a parent, and recently I asked CTCMath to give me one of the student spots (you can have up to 10 student spots with the Family Membership).  This isn’t necessary as parents can do any of the lessons they want to from their dashboard.  But I wanted to put myself into my kids shoes, and log in as they do and have a student dashboard in addition to the parent dashboard and just try it on for size.  The kids think it is hilarious that I became a student too.

For this review I skipped around and tried out several lessons in Kindergarten, Second Grade, Geometry, and Algebra. Though the younger levels were fairly easy and went quickly, it took me longer to complete the lessons in the upper levels.  The methods to solve the questions for each lesson are clearly explained.

Math and Bible are our first and second courses of the day.  We have two computers for the kids to use (we recently got these inexpensive ones when our one nicer computer died).  So usually two kids are working on their CTCMath at the same time (usually the first two that wake up), and the other kids (who wake a little later) are usually working on Bible or another course while they wait for a computer to be available.

My younger kids typically spend about 20 minutes on their math lessons each day and the older kids typically spend about 40 to 60 minutes each day.  Typically they view a video lesson, then complete the assignment or quiz.  If the lesson is fairly quick, then I ask them to complete two lessons that day. Most days they complete two or more lessons. The program automatically shows the children on their dashboard what they still need to complete to move forward to the next level.  They love getting awards and love the opportunity to repeat lessons and improve their score.

The parent dashboard lets me know when they have logged in, what video lesson they viewed, and how they scored on the lesson questions.  This gives us a chance to talk about where they might need to review some more or retake the lesson.  It also allows me to set tasks or assignments for them to do if I wish or just let it alone in default mode.  I receive email reports from the program when the kids have achieved various levels in a section: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, and weekly updated summary reports too and these are available on my dashboard, but it is really nice to get the email too.  I can also delete a lesson so the kids will repeat the lesson if I feel they need more practice.  I also have the option to print out each lesson tutorial page.  A nice option is that you can create a folder or a binder with the printed lessons and a copy of their worksheet answers, and awards if desired.

All of my kids are different and learn somewhat differently. I like that I have to option to set the passing grade level for each of my kids at a level that works best for them.   The default level to move forward to the next level is to acheive an 80% or better on the lessons within the current level, though you can skip around on different lessons within a level as much as you want.  It is up to the parent to decide if they want to leave it at default or to adjust the passing score based on how challenging they feel the work is for the student and if it needs adjusted.  For a few of my kids that are either just starting out or are slower to grasp details, need directions explained more than once, and need a little more room for mistakes, I have left the level for passing the lesson at 80%.

However, two of my kids learn quickly, seldom need anything explained more than once, are very detail oriented and math comes easy for them.  I have increased the passing level for lessons at 90% for these guys and their scores are usually consistently at 95% to 100% every time.

A very nice feature for the younger grades is the ability to improve one’s score.  The younger grades are much easier fix mistakes and improve one’s grade by retaking the lesson and quizzes as many times as you like and then the top three scores are kept and averaged together.

However, in the older grades, students are only allowed to take the lesson one additional time if they want to try to improve their score.  The first score is kept and if you retake the lesson that second score is kept and the two are averaged.

For the older student, it is much harder to improve your score just by retaking the lesson if you didn’t score very high to start with.  If you did very bad the first time, for example perhaps only got 50% correct, and then re-watched the video and understood what you did wrong and got a 100% the second time you took the lesson, then your grade is a 75% and not a 100%.  This part of the program is frustrating for the older kids and for me as a parent.  The kids were very motivated in the younger levels because of the opportunity to record their highest score or highest three scores.   I wish the program would allow the first score to be discarded if the teen student shows improvement in their knowledge and understanding of the lesson, especially if they are able to master the lesson and get a 100% the second time around.  I do love the feature for the younger grades that allowed them to retake the lesson as many times as they desired and then it averaged the top three scores and threw away the rest.

I found it was easier to listen to the video lesson, then select to view the optional written lesson summary below the video before moving on to the other tabs to view and complete questions, worksheets, and quizzes.  I don’t know why I never realized the importance of the written summary in this program before.

This tip became very helpful for one of my kids.  He is 12 and likes to hurry through the video and jump right into the questions before really understanding the method.  He has finished pre-Algebra and is now taking some lessons in Elementary Geometry and Algebra.  I have had to ask him to listen again to the video lesson when he is struggling with answering a problem.   Sometimes he fusses about listening more than one time to the lesson, though his two older brothers have no hesitation to listen to the lessons as many times as needed to get the understanding.  This one’s personality is different and he doesn’t like to repeat anything and gets frustrated if he has to repeat it.  Though when he plows through things in life, he often ends up redoing them because he didn’t listen or didn’t review before jumping ahead.  So having the written summary of the verbal lesson has made a huge improvement for him in his Elementary Geometry course.  Though he is dedicated to do his lessons and he is highly motivated (sometimes will complete three or four lessons in a day), he likes to do his lessons quick and doesn’t prefer to redo them.  So he now is able to reduce his mistakes by reviewing the written summary after hearing the video lesson. Win! Win!

I am definitely rusty on the upper grade level courses like Algebra and have struggled to help my three older boys with Algebra type problems in their course work over the years.  For some time now I have wanted to take the upper level math courses, but I find it hard to sit down on a regular basis and get it done with my other responsibilities.   When I was in school, I struggled in math, especially Algebra.  I never took Calculus or Trigonometry back then.  Thankfully I had a wonderful Algebra teacher in college who took extra time to tutor me back then and though I struggled through it, I passed the course.   So I am greatful for the CTCMath program with video lessons where my kids have an instructor that is tutoring them in these areas that I am not as strong in.  However, I plan to do better and be a student of CTCMath myself and use this program to it’s fullest potential to improve not only my kids math skills, but mine as well.  With a family subscription opportunity, why not learn or relearn these great skills right along with my kids?

What do the kids have to say? 

I caught up with two of my guys and asked them to share their thoughts about using CTCMath:

View from my almost 15 year old son (this boy has completed over 230 CTCMath lessons):

“I am currently taking Algebra.  I have taken CTCMath 5th Grade as review and completed 6th Grade and Basic Math and Pre-Algebra courses.   As long as I stayed with it and wrote down the examples, I did fine.  The questions with lots of Algebra calculations involved are the hardest. But it is easier when you have a person explaining it rather than just seeing it on paper in a book.  CTCMath is my favorite class.  I like that you are not listening to a robotic computer voice, but you are listening to an actual person instructing you step by step.  I had another program before that was not like this and I hated it. My younger brother tried this program on the individual membership and liked it and Mom wanted me to give it a try.  It worked out a lot better and I finally felt like I understood my math.  I like CTCMath and it is the best way for me to learn math.”

View from my 12 year old son (this boy has already completed over 470 CTCMath lessons over the past few years):

“I am currently at the end of the Basic Math PreAlgebra course. I am almost finished with Elementary Geometry too. I have taken CTCMath lessons in 3rd and 4th Grade as review, and completed the 5th Grade and 6th Grade courses.  I like using CTCMath. I am looking forward to starting Algebra soon and hope to bypass my brothers!”

Printables

You have the option of printing out student awards they earn. You also have the option to print lesson worksheets with some of the courses, mainly the middle and upper grade levels.  So far we printed only a couple of awards and do not usually print the rest because of the cost of ink.  But I like having the option to print things if I want to, and I think if I get some extra time, and extra ink, printing all of these things out and putting a binder together for each of the kids of their lesson summaries and awards would be a nice thing for each of them to have.  This feature would also help homeschool families who are required to create portfolios.  However in the state we live in, portfolios are not a requirement, but would be nice to keep as a keep sake and for later review if desired.

Final Thoughts

Our family has really enjoyed using CTCMath for the past three years.  I have seen a huge improvement in my slower audio visual learners as well as my kids who are quick to learn no matter what method is offered.  I would encourage families with all types of learners to look into using this program with their families and see if it meets their needs as either a full curriculum or a supplement to a curriculum.  I think most families would be pleasantly surprized as we have been at how well this program works.

CTCMath Special Offers

60% Off  & Free Trial Offers

Be sure to check out the CTCMath website and Social Media links for all the latest sales and special offers, news, tips, and product updates. They are currently running a Special Sale of 60% off + 6 bonus months for Homeschool Memberships.  They also offer a FREE Trial to try before you buy.

Social Media

CTCMath (US and Canda)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ctcmath?ref=hl
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ctcmathofficial
Periscope: https://www.periscope.tv/ctcmathofficial
Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/ctcmath/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWn5e6974bpIEAe46VnovZw

Maths Online (Australia Only)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mathsonline.com.au
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MathsOnlineAU

Homeschool Review Crew

Be sure to check out what others on the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about using products from CTCMath in their home.

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