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Homeschool math

Homeschool Curriculum Review: A+ Interactive Math

Posted by Wendy on May 1, 2015 2 Comments

Does your state require standardized testing? Mine does. Not every year, but it’s worked out that both boys will have to be tested this year. (We’re required to have testing done four times during their school careers – after grades 3, 5, 8, and 10.) The idea of doing this always makes me nervous that I’m somehow failing them in what I teach. This is probably ridiculous, but I worry about it nonetheless. What if the products we’re using aren’t enough to teach them what they need to know for these tests? Well, at least in mathematics, A+ Interactive Math is the answer.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been reviewing their Adaptive Placement Test and Individualized Lesson Plan program. This three-month subscription is an intense math course is a series of tests in a variety of subjects that the student should know based on his or her grade level. After a test is taken, the student is deemed to be either “at grade level” or “not at grade level” in that particular subject. If they’re at grade level, then great! You don’t have to worry about your child in that subject. If they’re not at grade level, the program has a huge variety of video lessons and practice worksheets to help the children get to where they can pass the test.

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You can see from this image the video lesson player. On the left are the different aspects of the subject at hand – in this case, 3rd grade subtraction. The student (or parent) chooses the one that needs the most work, and a video explanation will play. Then there are practice questions to be done after the video. If your student has already watched the video and just needs more practice before they attempt the test again, that’s not a problem. There’s a separate section with just practice worksheets. It’s all very easy to follow and find what you need.

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One of the most encouraging aspects of the program (for the children) is the Progress Report. This gives them a visual of how much more work they have to do to be able to pass the test. On the “racetrack” (really just a colored bar), there’s a line for the goal and another one showing where the student is on their path to success. The drawing of a child starts at the beginning and walks over to the line that represents their current progress.

So, now that we’re all familiar with what the program is and how it works, how did we use it our homeschool? Well, it took the place of our other math curriculum during the review period. Most days, anyway. There were some days when the boys really wanted to do the other one, so on those days they did both. This means that the boys were logged in to their accounts 3-4 days a week, either taking a test or mastering concepts so they could pass the tests they didn’t pass the first time out. I had the boys take one test, then do the corresponding lessons/worksheets (if needed) until they could pass the test. Another option is to have your child take all of the tests and then work on problem areas.

Opinions? Well, that depends on who  you ask. The kids didn’t like it at all. But we’ve had programs like that in the past, and does it mean that they didn’t benefit from it, or didn’t need it? Absolutely not! As a mom, I think this program is absolutely amazing. It’s really eye-opening to see exactly where your kids are sitting on certain topics. It does a great job of showing you exactly which concepts need more work. And it became clear to me during this process that even if the kids didn’t pass a test, that didn’t mean they had to review every single aspect of a particular subject. Maybe they did great on adding without carrying, but messed up every time there was carrying involved. Well, in that case, they only had to practice problems that involved carrying. Long story short, I think if you live in a state that requires standardized testing, you need to give this program a try, even if you think your kids are doing well in math.

You can get a 3-month subscription (this is the maximum they offer – it’s an intense program, remember?) for $24.99 for one student and an additional $10 for each extra student you wish to add. This price is half of their normal, so if you think you might be interested in this, you should jump on it. I don’t know how long the sale will last.

Blessings,

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Posted in: homeschooling, reviews | Tagged: Automatic Grading, Close Learning Gaps, Homeschool math, Identify Learning Gaps, Lesson Plan, Lessons, Math Curriculum, Math Practice, Math Review, Math Worksheets, Multisensory, Online Math, Placement Testing, Teaches math, Tests, Worksheets

Homeschool Curriculum Review: CTC Math

Posted by Wendy on April 24, 2014 1 Comment

CTC Math collage

Math is one of those subjects that so many parents dread teaching their children. It can be difficult, that’s for sure. I would never want to do it without help – and I was good at math! Australian company CTC Math is here to be that help for us. For the purposes of this review, I was given a free 12 Month Family Plan subscription.

How it Works

CTC Math is an online math curriculum for all ages, Kindergarten through 12th grade. The program consists of over 1300 video lessons, each one narrated by Pat Murray, a father of ten (who, I might add, has a lovely Australian accent!). The videos are very well done, each one clearly explaining the concept being taught along with animated examples. Once the child has watched the video, they move on to the questions portion of the lesson, which is really just an interactive worksheet.

For the lower grades (K-5), CTC Math qualifies as a full curriculum; for grades 6-12, it should be used as a supplement to something else.

CTC Math is offering a special promotion right now for homeschoolers: you can get their family plan (unlimited access to all grade levels for as many students as you have) for $118.80. The normal price for this program is $297, so this is pretty significant savings. One thing to be aware of is that when you sign up for the program, you’re given 5 student spots. If you have more than five students, just shoot them an email and they’ll open up your account to allow as many as you need. They’re always happy to do that. (Remember when I said that narrator and founder Pat Murray had 10 kids? Yeah. These guys understand big families!)

How Seahawk and Munchkin Used the Program

The best part (at least for our family) was that they have the videos set up to work on a computer with Flash or on a mobile device without it. Because we only have one computer, which Will needs for work most days, it was a nice surprise when I tried CTC on the Kindle Fire and it worked. On days the computer was available, the boys used it, but over 90% of the time, they used the Kindle, so it was really awesome that we had that as an option.

As a rule, we do the “together” schoolwork first, and then I get the boys going on their individual assignments. CTC Math is included in the latter category. I would get one of them going on math and the other on a different subject, and they would switch.

Like I mentioned before, there’s a short video on each topic that the child watches first. These videos range from about 2-7 minutes long. The student can watch the video as many times as (s)he needs to in order to fully comprehend the material. There were times when my boys needed to watch the videos more than once, so it was really nice that there were no limits on the video-watching. Once they’re confident they understand the information, they move on to the questions portion of the lesson.

I had the kids use the program every day – it took the place of our previous math curriculum, which was actually pretty similar to this, just without the video. Being able to add the video in was excellent. Our other workbook didn’t do a very good job of explaining what to do or why things were done that way. CTC Math covered essentially the same topics as that workbook, but Pat explained things much better than I could. The kids really started excelling whereas before, they were just getting by.

Our Opinion

I think this product is pretty awesome. It’s most useful if you want a “traditional” math curriculum for your kids. As a public school graduate, “traditional” is all I know. This fit that bill beautifully. My kids . . . well, I hate to say it, but they’re lazy when it comes to schoolwork. They don’t love anything we do. At least not the stuff that feels like “real” school. But they like CTC Math a whole lot better than our old workbooks, so that’s good praise for the program.

My only real critique of the program is that everything is done in the metric system, even though we were on the United States curriculum. That’s a pretty minor thing in my opinion, though. After all, the entire rest of the world uses the metric system, and honestly, the mechanics for measuring are the same whether you’re using centimeters or inches.

They boys’ absolute favorite thing about the program was the certificates they earned by performing well on their questions. If students get 100% on all of their questions in a particular unit, they earn a Platinum certificate, 95% earns a gold,  90% earns a silver, and 85% gets bronze. These certificates are emailed to the parent for optional printing. We don’t have any printer ink right now, so we didn’t print the certificates, but I’ve saved all the emails so we can print them at a later time. Even just seeing the certificates on the screen put huge smiles on my kids’ faces.

Blessings,

Wendy

CTC Math is on Facebook, both for their American program and the Australian counterpart.

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Posted in: homeschooling, reviews | Tagged: free online math tutor, Homeschool math, homeschooling, math for homeschoolers, Math fun, Math games, math online, math online tutoring, math tuition, math tutor, math tutor online, math tutoring, math tutoring online, maths tutor online, online math help, online math lessons, online math program, online math tutor, online math tutorials, online maths tuition, online maths tutoring, tutor maths

Welcome!

Welcome to Ladybug Daydreams! My name is Wendy, and I’m glad you’re here. I am a homeschooling mom to 5 boys. I write about homeschooling, homeschool curriculum, yarn (both knitting and crochet), and more! I hope you enjoy what you read.

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