Little Bits of Life: CTCMath Review

Good morning families who are trying to teach math. I know math is a hard subject for some families to teach. I know it is not my best subject. This is just one of the reasons why my girls have been using CTCMath for the last 3 years. The second reason we use CTCMath is because my girls love it. I have done reviews on CTC before and we are using it again this year. We have the CTCMath Family Membership so we can use it with more than one student. I wanted to remind everyone that with your subscription your child will have access to all the grade levels. So if your 3rd grader does 4th grade addition but 2nd grade multiplication they can do that at no extra cost. The best part is Homeschoolers can get 60% off + 6 bonus months.

This year we are using the 5th grade and the 3rd grade. I have reviewed about the 3rd grade before and I don't think it has changed much since my oldest used it. The 5th grade level is new for us. They have also added some new features to make things that my 3rd grader likes.

Each grade level covers a lot of information, I feel that it is well rounded and we are comfortable using it as a complete curriculum. The 3rd and 5th grade levels have about 114 lessons and approximately 19 diagnostic test or assessments. It covers patterns and algebra, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, numbers II, decimals,fractions, problem solving, time, speed, units of measure, area and volume, plane shapes and solids, angles, lines, position, chance and graphs. It basically covers everything a 5th grader needs to know. The 3rd grade level covers similar topics just as a grade appropriate level in other words they are quite a bit simpler than the 5th grade lessons are. CTC uses a mastery approach to teaching so once your student masters a lesson and gets a passing grade they can move on to the next section.

Each lesson includes an instructional video. Most of these videos are under 4-8 minutes in length. The girls like the way the videos are done. They get right to the point of how to do the problem and have zero fluff. Everything is broke down in simple steps and the girls usually pick up how to do the lesson the first time watching the video. Your child can go back and watch the video as many times as necessary. This is great for review and I often have them go back and watch the lesson videos just to be sure they don't forget to how to do something.

After each video lesson and when they are ready, your child will click the question's tab at the top of the lesson. This tab will take them to the practice questions. The number of questions vary from lesson to lesson we seem to average about 15 or so questions for the 5th grade level a few less for the 3rd grade level. The questions are graded right away so as soon as they hit submit they find out if they did it correctly. If they get the question wrong it shows them what the correct answer is. They can click on the questions tab over and over so your child can practice as much as they need to. Each time you click to start the questions again it will give them different questions. Their is a large variety of practice problems and we have yet to get the same question twice.

CTCMath offers some different testing options the standard and the comprehensive test. The standard test is different in the since that it does not have as many questions, its some where in the ball park of 20 questions. The comprehensive test has some where in the ball park of 40 questions. The comprehensive covers a broader range of content. We usually use the comprehensive test at the end of each unit. We do use the standard test as a practice test as it seems to give them an idea of what they might need to work on a little more.

Now for some of the fun teacher stuff. You can set a required score that your child must achieve before the lesson is marked completed or passed. I have set ours at 80% because we aim high in our house and I know my girls are capable of achieving this score if they do their work and keep their paws off the toys during math time. You can print out a chart that shows what lessons they have taken and what scored they have received on each one. CTCMath has added some great new features this time around. We now have the ability to set specific task for each student. So at the beginning of the school year I assigned each lesson on a specific day for each of the girls. The girls then log in at the start of the day and click the task tab at the top of their student account. This will tell them what they should be doing for the day. I admit it is a bit time consuming do set this up all at once. But if you have a child like my 3rd grader that likes to skip around this feature is a huge help. Now for my 5th grader who is becoming more independent we have some printable charts. You can find the charts under the tools section of your parent account. You simply download and print what ever grade level you need. These charts allow your child to keep track of his or her own scores on each of their lessons it also has a line for them to mark down the date that they completed the lesson. Their is also a sheet where they can mark the date and score that they get on an assessment test. We have only been testing this feature out for a few weeks but so far it has been a great visual reminder to her on how well she is doing and what she has left to complete for the year. If she has to repeat a lesson because she didn't do so hot it shows her how she is improving each time she tries again. For her that is very encouraging to be able to see her hard work paying off.

I really can't say enough great things about CTCmath and I wanted to share these great offers so that you can try it out for your self.