Monday, October 9, 2017

CTC Math Review

CTCMath
September marked the beginning of the school year for us in our homeschool. I kept dragging my feet on choosing a math curriculum for my seventh grader. What we had previously been using, just began to feel awkward and wasn't a good fit anymore. When the review popped up for CTC Math, I thought, well, what could it hurt? Let's go ahead and give this a try. We received a one-year subscription for a single membership, as opposed to a family subscription, since my seventh grader would be the only one using this curriculum.

I really had no expectations for this online math curriculum, other than the fact that I wanted my son to be able to have access to video lessons followed by short reviews on the new topic presented. I also knew that it was time to move him onto Pre-Algebra and that he was ready for the switch. We opened the lesson pages for Pre-Algebra and he got started right away.

The lessons are really and truly the kind that I classify as "open and go", except usually that term is associated with curriculum written in a book. But really, he opens the website, and gets started with the new lesson. He typically completes 1-2 lessons per day depending on how simple the topic is for him. When the lessons contain some sort of review, he is able to complete more. But if it's a new concept for him, like making factor trees for example, that was a longer lesson and it took him 2 days to complete. Some of the numbers that he had to break down into prime numbers were super huge so it took him a while to finish all of the practice problems. The computer did save his place. That was really nice because we were both afraid that he was going to have to start at the beginning of the lesson.

This has been my son's first experience with using online math lessons. Even though we had previously used math videos online, this is his first time completing the review questions in the online platform. We both enjoy that the lessons are short, simple, and to the point. Only one concept is presented at a time. There isn't review from lesson to lesson, but each section does include a diagnostic test that can be taken before or after the series of lessons are completed.

I am having my son complete the Pre-Algebra lessons in order. The nice thing about this curriculum though is that we do have access to all of the other lessons, so if we run into something that he really needs to work on, we can back up and go directly to that lesson for review.

These are the topics and lessons included in the Basic Math and Pre-Algebra portion of the website:

  • Part 1
    • Basics and Whole Numbers
    • Fractions
    • Decimals
    • Percentages
  • Part 2
    • Problem Solving
    • Pre-Algebra 1
    • Pre-Algebra 2
    • Pythagoras' Theorem
  • Part 3
    • Powers, Exponents, and Roots
    • Scientific Notation and Powers of 10
    • Measurements
    • Area
    • The Circle
    • Graphs and Charts
  • Part 4
    • Probability
    • Statistics
    • Variables, Expressions, and Equations
    • Equations Extension
    • Ratios
    • Problem Solving
    • Rates
    • Number Applications
    • Volume
Our plan at this point is to work through all of these sections this school year. I will say that Part 1 has been a very thorough review of the math that he has had up until this point. We spent a significant amount of time on fractions in our previous curriculum, so that section is becoming a very solid review of that concept. I'm also pleased that he has retained much of what we had worked so hard on in the past.

Another aspect of this math curriculum that I like is that I receive an email once per week, documenting my sons progress. The report shows what lessons he completed, when he was logged into the site, and his scores on the lessons. I pretty much already know the above information, but the progress report is a nice touch to busy parents, who may not be able to sit with their child during each lesson. This way the parent can go in and help a child review any trouble areas without having to just guess at what the child knows.

Occasionally, there are a few different terms presented in this middle school math curriculum than we are used to in the United States. For instance, instead of calling them parenthesis, the teacher calls them brackets. Instead of saying exponents, he says indices. And instead of the popular PEMDAS mnemonic for order of operations, it is called BIDMAS in this curriculum. Not a deal breaker, but I have clarified to my son that in the future, he might hear these terms called different names, but that it still means the same thing.

Another thing I appreciate about this online curriculum is that the pricing is really fair for what you get. First, you can try a free trial, which is really enough of a sample for you to understand how the curriculum works as well as assess if it is right for your family. Second, homeschoolers are eligible for a 60% homeschool discount. We are really enjoying this new to us math curriculum and plan to continue using it throughout the year. 
CTCMath
Curious what other reviewers had to say about this product? Head on over to the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read all the reviews.

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