Review of CTCMath

After being on the Homeschool Review Crew since 2010, one thing is sure: we've seen math programs come and we've seen math programs go...well, that statement is almost true. Since we saw CTCMath come, we have yet to see it go. This math program became a favorite the first time my kids used the Family Membership back in 2014. In the intervening years, the kids (now 16, 14, 12, and 12) have all taken their turns with various levels of CTCMath. You can read all of our previous reviews here (which I would really encourage you to do because I try to target different things in each review). This time around, I'll be talking about Michael's and Mary-Catherine's (12) experience with Basic Math and Pre-Algebra (essentially 7th grade). Although we drifted away from this math curriculum in recent months, they were legitimately thrilled to hear that they would be going back to it for this review (and, actually, for the foreseeable future). In fact, when I was talking about the rest of high school with Therese (16), she was happy to remember CTCMath, and indicated that she would probably be returning to it for the rest of her high school math. After all, CTCMath goes all the way from K-Calculus!

What is CTCMath? CTCMath is an Australian company, the brainchild of a homeschool father (which probably explains these amazing rates for homeschool families; N.B., the family rate covers up to *10* children plus you get 60% off + 6 bonus months!).

The lessons are done as short, PowerPoint style videos, followed by questions. For the younger grades, each lesson is less than five minutes. High school lessons are longer, but are still less than 15 minutes typically. My kids never do only one lesson in a sitting. Here is an example of a lesson in progress. The instructor's voice (in his awesome accent!) is narrating:

While there is an option for a printable worksheet to accompany each lesson, my kids have always opted to do all of their work online.

For grades K-8, CTCMath can be used as a standalone math curriculum, but for high school, they recommend it as a supplement to another program. Nicholas (14) used it to supplement another Geometry program in the past, and it worked wonderfully in that regard. 

One way in which CTCMath excels is with its teacher supports. For example, you can see at a glance what your children are up to:

You can assign tasks to them:

You can even look at every aspect of their upcoming (or past) lessons in the parent view:

One thing that has always irritated me (and my children) about other math programs is when I want to see certain things about their lessons and I have to log in as them and potentially disturb their progress to noodle around in their lessons. As you can see from the graphic above, that won't happen with CTCMath!

My Twins and CTCMath

As I indicated previously, my kids already knew that they loved CTCMath. Michael (12) has this to say: "I like how it shows you the lesson and then immediately afterward you do the questions. I just get it better with this program. He's a very good teacher." Mary-Catherine (12) says: "I like it because I've always had a math mental block (ME - true that), but whenever I'm doing CTC, it always seems to come more easily to me and I'm not intimidated."

For my part, I can tell you that although I have set the pass level at 80% for the twins, both of them keep going until they get 100% typically. It's a point of pride with them. They want to get everything right. They want to make their instructor proud (even though he has no idea how they're doing!). I love that.

My family is clearly sold on CTCMath. I have gotten it free for review, and I have paid for it myself. I will keep paying for it until all of my kids graduate. I believe in it that strongly. I'm sure there are differing opinions out there, so be sure to read all of the other reviews by clicking the banner below. If you're *still* not sure, you can always sign up for their free trial!