My daughter and I received a Family Membership to an online math curriculum called CTCMath.
I had no previous experience or opinion of CTCMath before trying it but it only took a few minutes of using it to conclude that this was going to go on my list of math curriculum I can recommend. If you wish to try CTCMath in your own family, you can make use of their free trial, where you will have access to the first lesson of each topic.
Who is CTCMath for?
CTCMath covers math from Kindergarten through to high school.
It can be used as a complete math curriculum for students in Kindergarten thru to Grade 8, and as a supplement at the high school level.
Since we have a Family Membership, I was able to register both my second grader and myself as a student.
For homeschooling parents, it can serve as an easy way to refresh your math skills to be better equipped to help your children with their math. Myself personally, I always enjoyed math but since it’s been quite a while since I learned math in school, I am enjoying relearning some of the more advanced math, like calculus and trigonometry.
Navigating to lessons on CTC Math
I found it very easy to figure out how to use the program. From the very first time I logged in, I had no troubles figuring out how to navigate through the program. It is set up in a way that there is minimal to no learning curve.
With drop down menu’s, it’s easy to quickly navigate to a lesson of your choice. Every grade from Kindergarten to Grade 6, has the same 4 options:
- Number, Patterns and Algebra
- Measurement
- Space and Geometry
- Statistics and Probability
After making a choice, a further selection of math topics appears specific to the grade selected. Clicking on a topic will reveal the lessons available. You can see from the screenshot below that there are 15 individual lessons for “Multiplication” for example.
The topics for Middle School and High School:
Clicking on Geometry, you could navigate to these 11 “Basic 2D Shapes” lessons.
Using CTCMath
Instructional Video
After navigating to the desired lesson, the student first watches an instructional video. The video’s are concise and to the point. Lesson length varies. Most of the video’s I watched were 2 or 3 minutes, but it can be anywhere from 1 – 10 minutes.
For some lessons, where there was a lot to learn and remember, I found it a tad difficult trying to learn everything during the playing of the video. Fortunately I discovered that there’s also a .pdf version of the information available for download. For some of the lessons, I found this option for learning extremely helpful. It gives the student options to learn in the way they individually learn best.
The video’s use flash.
Another thing to note is the instructor has an Australian accent. I didn’t find this to be in any way distracting, and I don’t think my daughter even noticed.
Math Questions
After watching the video, the student proceeds to the questions.
The types of questions varied. At times multiple choice, typing the answer, building shapes, matching, drop down, even printable worksheets. I kind of enjoyed the variety.
The questions for each lesson only took about 10 minutes or less, depending on the lesson and the individual student. As a math loving adult I was able to whip through the questions quite quickly.
My only real complaint (which is not really a big deal) is when completing the questions, we weren’t able to see how many questions there was going to be. It did have a progress bar which gave a rough idea of where we were in the process, but I would have preferred to know more specifically.
After completing the questions, all the questions and answers are displayed showing which the student answered correctly and which they didn’t. If desired, a .pdf version of the students marked work can be printed, which could be helpful for further review of troubled areas.
Our Experience Using CTCMath
I have offline math curriculum for my second grader that we use and love. However the instructional video’s we were using with her curriculum were long and boring. Often times I didn’t bother having my daughter watch them.
The CTCMath video’s aren’t frilly but are no longer than necessary to teach the math clearly and to the point. The video’s make a nice complement to her offline math curriculum.
However, as each lesson (video & questions) can be completed in about 15 minutes or less, I am using CTCMath as a supplement to my daughter’s existing curriculum. The 15 minutes is well within my second graders attention span, and makes it easy to add some extra math learning in a day. My daughter never minded doing math on a computer.
I also appreciate that I can choose which lessons my daughter is to complete and assign them as a task along with the date it is to be completed. So when she logs in she can immediately see and click on any lesson assigned to her.
So, I do feel that CTCMath makes a great option for a homeschoolers math curriculum. Until November 15th, homeschoolers can get 60% off + 6 bonus months.
Michelle
Monday 16th of October 2017
Shared on Homeschooling Across Canada FB page
Melanie Thomas
Monday 16th of October 2017
Thank you :)