review

Huge Subscriber Offer: 60% OFF + BOGO at CTC Math
You must use that link for the discount. Homeschool Family Pricing Available.

Math is one of those subjects that your child either LOVES or HATES.

My daughter HATES math.
VERY MUCH SO.

She does her math homework first thing in the morning.
Which if you know her, really means she dislikes it.

Some days Most days she bombards me with questions like,
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
It’s TOO HARD!
(which isn’t a question)
And WHY?

She is not behind in math,
She might even be a tad ahead, but she really EARNS that position,
it most definitely doesn’t come naturally to her.

My son, on the other hand, enjoys math.
He is a thinker.
a problem solver.
a riddler.

If you happen to be new,
and anywhere within 100 or so feet of him,
he might surprise you by pulling a brain teaser out of his pocket
and demand that you match wits to see who can solve it first.

Math is his favorite subject,
something he looks forward to,
and if it were up to him,
math would be the only subject of the day.

He says things to me like:

“Math is my favorite subject”

and

“If it were up to me, math would be the only subject of the day.”

:)

But, even though they are both so very different in their enthusiasm towards math,
they both really like CTC Math.

Which is good because CTC Math sent us a free subscription to try out their program and let our readers know what we thought.

So, are you interested in an online math program? Here’s the deal:

CTC Math is a supplemental online math program for K-12.

A Subscription to CTC Math Includes:
1,367 animated and narrated math lessons (VIDEOS!!!)
A bank of over 57,000 interactive questions
Diagnostic tests
Instant feedback to students and regular reporting to parents
Algebra, statistics, geometry, trigonometry, probability plus more

Here’s how all that looks:

Getting Started:

Essentially, you can start your child at any grade level and any topic that you want. Just choose your grade, choose your stream, and then choose a specific topic.

If you don’t know where to start, each topic includes an optional comprehensive test, and an instant report you can view to diagnose problem areas.

I actually already know that Bubba needs to work on Statistics and Probability so I put him in 3rd grade; Statistics; Graphs and Charts.

Clicking on the topic takes me directly to the video lesson.

The Lessons:

Each video lesson is under 10 minutes long. (Can I get an Amen?) They are simple, easy to understand, and usually include interactions within the lesson.
Children can pause, stop, rewind any of the videos on their own. Big buttons. Real simple like.

Not to mention the teacher is Australian.
(Seriously, what kid can ignore a math teacher that sounds like The Crocidile Hunter?)

Follow Up Questions:
Direcly after the video lesson, children complete the follow up questions. This is all done online and often involves click and drag positioning to answer some questions. I want to point this out because the response of the actual graphics is fantastic.

I’m very impressed with how easy the tools and objects on the screen move around and respond to user interaction. They also make sense. (Which, if you’ve ever sent your children to a state required math assessment, you know how frustrating bad computer graphics and response can be.) CTC Math is crisp and easy to work with, there are no technical frustrations and children are free to focus on learning.

Reports:

After taking the required questions, children are given an immediate report and it’s easy to visually see where the child missed the mark. For example, in Bubba’s report above I can easily determine that my child understands the concept of picture graphs, but mixed up the numbers. I can see that I don’t need to keep teaching pictographs, but I need to give him tools to SLOW down and carefully approach math problems so we don’t make simple mistakes. Additional reports are saved in the parent login area so you can always access and pull up you’re children’s work.

Pros:

Family Pricing, CTC Math has competetive homeschool pricing. Even Better: CTCMath is offering our readers 60% off + BOGO, which means when you purchase a year subscription, you’ll actually get two years!!

Optional Testing. I can’t tell you how many online programs MAKE you test, or email the administrator to change the grade level of your children. With CTCMath comprehensive tests are offered for each subcategory, but they are NOT required to begin working at a particular grade level…..which leads me to my next pro:

Ability to bounce from grade level to grade level. CTC Math covers Kindergarten through Trigonometry. This is a helpful feature if you have a child who struggles with fractions but is amazing with division. You as the parent can assign them to different grade levels to continually build on their knowledge without any lapses.

Reports are Easy to understand. You can easily see what areas your children are proficient in, or what areas they need more instruction with.

No Visual Distractions. It’s not gimmicky. There are no flashing ads, no “design your own” avatars, and all that jazz. It’s simple. With a highly distractable child, this is something I can really appreciate.

NO CD’s!! Video lessons are streaming online, which keeps things simple. No disks to loose, scratch, or turn into flying saucers in the middle of a lesson.

Cons:

I actually don’t have any cons for CTCMath. (is that possible?) I WAS planning on complaining that the lessons weren’t available on our mobile devices, but I just pulled out my Kindle Fire to find that CTCMath is compatible with iPad and Android devices. I didn’t even have to download anything, it just pulled right up using HTML5 instead of Flash.

That was pretty impressive.

And if you still have any doubt, you can try CTCMath for free.
None of that credit card baloney either, just enter your email and you’ll immediately be able to take quite a few lessons…..see for yourself why over 200,000 students use this program.

If you do, let me know what you think below!