CTC Math is an online math tutor that encompasses Kindergarten to Grade 12. We’ve been trying out the 12 Month Family Plan (for 2-10 students) for the for the past six weeks.
Each section of these online math lessons has a video with an explanation and examples so the student will know what to do in the questions section. Tristan isn’t so confident in his own reading skills yet, but he can still read some of the questions. Kallista can infer most of the questions she’s been working on from the video examples as she’s right at the beginner’s level.
Your child can watch the video as many times as they’d like to ensure they have a good understanding of the material being presented. Each section is broken into smaller bite-sized lessons so children aren’t confused or overwhelmed.
CTC online math lessons cover a wide range of topics from the numbers 1-10, right up to geometry and trigonometry. Since my children are almost 4 & just 6, we stuck with the Kindergarten level for both children. It took them both a while to get used to how it works, so the first couple of days’ scores weren’t too good. After reviewing the videos again and practicing the tests a few more times they were both able bring their scores up.
You can sign up as a student yourself as well! You can check out the modules without it affecting your children’s grades. You can use it if you have children in older grades and you’d like to refresh your memory to keep up with your kids, or you can use it just to keep your own memory sharp! I haven’t yet done this, but I wouldn’t mind having this as a summer project when my Monday night meetings are on hold. My mind could do with something more challenging than Sudoku to keep it busy.
Tristan is enjoying his online math lessons and asks for them on a regular basis. He tells me that his favourite units so far have been time (both digital and analog), days of the week, and months of the year. He is swiftly working his way through the kindergarten level and should soon be moving on to Grade 1, which he is excited to do.
Kallista saw her big brother working on CTC Math and felt left out so I set up an account for her. She’s working on the beginning of the Kindergarten program and really liking it a lot. When she does well, you can hear her throughout the house hollering, “I have 100 of cent (100%)!”
The children are finding it a novelty to work on CTC Math at the library and on my android tablet (CTC Math is available with a non-flash version, which works well for us). They can both work at the same time so they don’t have to wait for each other to finish or use a timer. On this day at the library I was sitting between the children and helping them when needed.
On another day Tristan was at the pc and Kallista was at another table looking at a book when another boy came over and was very interested in what Tristan was doing. He really wanted to be able to use the program as well. He was on spring break from school, and still he was very interested in doing online math lessons like Tristan was doing! He was very disappointed when I told him that this was only for Tristan today.
The kindergarten level consists of numbers, addition and subtraction, easy multiplication, measuring length and mass, time, shapes, graphs and money. We aren’t doing the money area as the program we have is for the USA market so they aren’t showing pounds stirling. Tristan has tried to do the notes, but he couldn’t see the values on the notes as the pictures were too small to see the values of the notes.
The immediate feedback that is given with CTC Math helps the children learn about where they have made an error and where they have done well. After each set of questions, they see their answers alongside the correct answers and how they match up. When one of the children finishes a section I receive an email to let know they’ve completed that level and what their score was. Attached is a certificate that can be printed off for the achievement. The children can keep redoing the questions over again to try to improve their scores as well, which is a good motivator.
I receive weekly emails from CTC Math with the details of everyone’s account. There’s a PDF document attached, broken down for each student account. It shows the days and times that each child logged on and off, which videos they’ve watched, and which question sets they’ve worked on, along with a visual colour guide of their scores.
Though there aren’t any bells and whistles, animated games, music, or funny sounds within CTC Math, this is one reason that I like it. Kids don’t always need/want to be “entertained” as the real world isn’t always a laugh a minute. CTC Math held my children’s attention just fine without gimmicks. As it’s an Australian-based company (the lessons are available in a few different versions: USA, UK, Australian,etc.) the narrator has an Australian accent, but it isn’t a heavy accent and is very easy to understand. I don’t even think my children noticed it!
There is currently a sale happening which has the prices discounted to $11.97 per month, $50.80 for 6 months, and $78.80 for a year for a single student. If you have 2-10 students the current sale prices are $15.97 per month, $78.80 for 6 months, and $118.80 for a year. You can also sign up for a free trial to get the feel of it before purchasing it. The pricing is out of reach for my own pocket at the moment; however, if my children were older and needed help with a particular topic area or as a refresher, I’d consider going for the monthly option instead of a pricey tutor whose schedule we would have to work around. That being said, my children are really enjoying using CTC Math and haven’t grown weary of it after 6 weeks so it will still be used as a part of our home education routine.
The only frustration my children have run into is that occasionally they will answer a question correctly, but the program will mark it incorrect. I should have been more proactive and jotted down the specific questions to make CTC Math aware of it, but I will do so in the future.
CTC Math are also on Facebook and as Maths Online Facebook (Australia). If you would like to read how other homeschoolers think about CTC Math, click on the Schoolhouse Review Crew graphic below that will take you to 99 additional reviews.
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