CTCMath - Family Membership Review

I will be honest, I am spread very thin teaching three kids at different learning and grade levels.  I was grateful to get the opportunity to review the CTCMath Family Membership Online from CTCMath for the girls.  It has helped me out so much already these last few weeks.

CTCMath is a online math program that provides extra help for students who may be struggling in various areas of math.  It offers video instruction which can be repeated as many times as the student needs.  Each lesson includes quizzes to reinforce and provide practice in the skills that your student needs extra help in.  You could use it as a standalone curriculum/teaching program or as supplemental to help reinforce skills your student may be struggling with.

CTCMath allows students to work at a pace that encourages them to master a skill, not just learn it.  The videos are short and yet are full of information which helps those with short attention spans. They give several examples of how to complete the problems, and allows students to really understand it.  If they are struggling still, they can easily re-watch the video.

CTCMath provides 

• Almost 1,400 math videos and interactive lessons
• 57,000 interactive questions
• Diagnostic tests
• Instant feedback for both parents and students
• Help with higher level math such as algebra, trigonometry and calculus
• Math lessons are available for students in levels from kindergarten through high school

We have been using CTCMath Family Membership for the last few weeks with the girls as their full math curriculum.  

The girls like the short length of the lessons.  If they do not understand the steps being taught, they can easily watch the video again and work at the skill they need to master.  

The lessons start out with the video and then there are usually ten questions that students need to answer.  They get immediate feedback.

But at the end of the lesson, you can also see a summary of all the problems they completed and the student can look at the problems they missed so they can work on what they answered wrong.

One of my favorite things about CTCMath.  The simple videos.  My kids like playing math games online.  But sometimes the flashier the program, the less they learn.  There is just too much distraction for their ADD brains.  The videos on CTCMath are simple and to the point.  They give a great explanation with several working examples.  If they need to, they can easily watch them again.  These videos save me an extraordinarily large amount of time in dealing with math instruction.  

This video from the CTC Math Youtube site, will give you a thorough explanation and shows how the individual lessons work.

Along with the student account, CTCMath Family Membership also gives parents a login.  They can use this login to not only track their student's grades, but parents can also assign out the lessons for their students.  The lessons are not laid out in order for students.  You can login and see all the lessons for each specific grade level or skill type.  Parents though can assign lessons to be completed on specific days.  You can assign out for several weeks, and also make sure that each assignment has a due date.  This is then tracked in a report that is sent to your registered email.  So you can track what lessons your student is completing on time.  

The girls have been enjoying the ease of lessons.  I like that I can adjust Caty's learning levels on various math topics.  For example she was struggling with fractions, and needed to take a couple steps back.  We discovered an area where she successfully hid that she was struggling.  I was able to easily adjust her assigned lessons, and re-assign a younger grade level on the same topic.  A "light bulb went off" and she suddenly realized that she did understand the problems!!  CTCMath Family Membership is very adjustable for kids with special needs and those with learning disabilities.

I plan on continuing to use CTCMath Family Membership as a stand alone curriculum for Caty this upcoming school year.  Lydia will also continue to use, but as a supplement for her math program, to help her master skills with extra work and video explanations.  

Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to review the CTCMath Family Membership Online from CTCMath.  Click on the link below to read what they felt about this program.