My Review of CTCMath

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

I really enjoyed having one of my kids use CTCMath last year, so when I had the opportunity to review it again, I eagerly agreed. Last year, I had my high schooler use it. This year, I wanted to have one of my younger kids give it a try to see what it was like at the lower levels.

I received a 12-month Family membership, which can be used for the whole family. But, since much of our homeschool has wound down for summer, I decided to just have my fifth grade son use it during the review period. He really enjoys math, so I knew he wouldn’t mind trying something new.

What Is This Product?

An online math course, CTCMath uses video tutorials and summaries to present new concepts. Then, students have the chance to practice what they’ve learned with worksheets and interactive questions.

The videos are simply presented, breaking down complex topics into easy to understand bits. The student dashboard is designed to be simple. It is fairly self-explanatory, and once my son learned how to access the lessons, he had no trouble accessing it by himself.

As the teacher, I had the option to go into the Parent Dashboard and make customized worksheets and make adjustments. This included things like changing the difficulty and how many questions students received.

If desired, I could even include questions from any math course offered by CTCMath. So, if my son was struggling with a particular topic and needed extra practice, I could grab questions from a lower grade level.

The Parent Dashboard is very user-friendly. Here’s a peek at what the Question Bank section looked like:

Also in this area, I could pull reports to monitor progress. This was helpful to see how the lessons were going, and gave me a quick peek at the status of math.

Since there’s a lot going on this summer, I opted to not create any customized question banks. That’s the great thing about this program. It can be very hands-off for parents if desired. You can get things set up for your child and then let them do their work independently. During this review period, I appreciated that feature.

However, I know this wouldn’t be a great fit for every family, so it’s great that the company allows those who want to be more hands-on the opportunity to do so.

How We Used This Program

Since my son really enjoys the math program we typically use, my goal for this review period was twofold. One, to get a better sense of the lower levels offered by CTCMath. Two, to allow him to do some independent math practice to keep his skills sharp for fall.

My son logged in a couple of days a week, and began working through the Grade 5 lessons. He spent a lot of time in the multiplication section:

Each lesson was fairly short, which kept it from being boring. He really appreciated being able to knock out a lesson in about ten minutes. Some days, he did more than one.

As you complete lessons, you earn certificates for completion. He liked trying for the Gold each time. 

There was also a feature that I really liked. It was called Weekly Revision Sets. They were a variety of questions based on the material covered in each week:

It was a quick way to review, or could also be used for extra practice if your child had trouble with a concept.

What We Thought of CTCMath

My son enjoyed trying a different math curriculum. He liked that he could easily skip the video if it was a concept he already knew, or that he could watch them if he ran into trouble.

The certificate progress was motivating for him, though I know it wouldn’t have been for all of my kids.

He will continue using CTCMath for enrichment and supplement as we move into the upcoming school year. My incoming first grader also wants to try it, he thinks it looks like fun to do math on the computer. So we’ll give it a try.

I don’t like the emails that CTCMath sends, but that is my only complaint about the program. Each week I got a status/progress update. However, for parents who don’t regularly check in, I can see how these would be important. So maybe I’ll poke around a bit and see if there’s a way to turn that feature off. It’s really the only thing I didn’t like.

The math was solid, presented in a kid-friendly way. And if you’re looking for an online math option that’s great for the whole family, I highly recommend it.

Note: If it weren’t for the bandwidth needs for the video instruction, I would likely use this for all of my kids since it’s so simple on my end and covers K-12. But, we still have a limited, metered connection, so switching to online won’t work for us all at this point.

To learn more about CTCMath, and to see how other families used it in their homeschool, please click on the banner below.