Online Homeschool Math {TOS Crew Review}

I have to say my oldest son loves math.  He takes after me this way.  I always loved math and even went to State Math Contests!  He was beyond thrilled when we got to review an online homeschool math curriculum through CTCMath.  We received their 12 Month Family Plan which allows for up to 10 students to use it!  Only having 9 children and one not even doing anything with school yet this is an awesome thing for us!

This program is great for homeschoolers as it covers Kindergarten through High School so you don’t have to find another program after one or two years.  There are over 1300 videos over the entire course of the years that can be watched and learned from.  Best of all is that your child is not locked down by a certain grade but can move around as they want to.  If they need easier they can go down a grade level or go up one if it’s too easy for them and not challenging them enough.

Because this is an internet online homeschool math you and your child can access this anywhere you can get an internet connection.  So you can easily use it on your home computer, laptop, tablet, smart phone or whatever other devices there are out there these days that I have no idea how to work!  I’m a bit behind the times.  

Some fun points we love!  The instructor on the videos has a cute Australian accent.  If you’re Australian it’s nothing out of the ordinary but for my born and raised in the Midwest kids, this is something uncommon and holds their attention.  The videos are short and easy to understand.   The problems grade themselves as they’re being done so they don’t have to wait for you to grade them and you don’t have to grade them!  I love not having to grade things!  They do have worksheets you can print off to work on as well.  And the best part for me is that everything is recorded so at the end of a year all I’ll have to do is print off the record pages to show what they have done at what grade levels for that year.

If you want you can assign a grade level to your student.  I prefer to keep it open.  I have some children who have delays.  They learn slowly.  And on any given day they may not remember what they learned the day before or the week before, so they need the flexibility to go back a few lessons or a full grade if necessary to where they do feel confident.  All students should feel confident and smart in my opinion and this program allows for that.

Another fun thing is that each child has their own login.  You may not find this fun, but trust me when you have a lot of kids they love knowing that they are the only ones that can get into their account.  Of course, they know that mommy knows all the passwords and can CHANGE them, but they’re okay with that.  I’m okay with the fact that they see this as fun play time and not do homework and math time.

Another customization with CTCMath is the fact that you can decide how often they let you know what your students are doing.  You can get a weekly report on each student.  This tells you what they’re doing, how well they’re doing, etc.  

I love that the questions require your student to input their own answers.  No multiple choice here.  They have to do their own work.  Each of my kids has their own scratch paper notebook that they can work their problems in if they need to show some work.  I can look at these then if they’re not getting very many right in an area and do some problem solving.  If they just don’t get the concept, the videos can be watched again and again.  There is no limit to the number of times your student can redo a lesson.  This is another aspect that is wonderful for delayed or special needs learners.  It gives them a margin of error.

As the mom and the teacher I love that I have my login while the kids have their own.  I can go into my parent area and see what each of the kids has been doing.  I can get detailed views of the questions they’ve answered and what topics they struggle with.  I can then assign them to do more in that area.  I love the flexibility of being able to move them from one topic to another or one grade to another if necessary.  

You can find out more about CTCMath by checking out their facebook page.  Also head on over to the Main TOS Review Crew page for all the other reviewers thoughts.  We all reviewed the same program though different grade levels!  Don’t forget to sign up for a free trial too!