We’ve been using CTCMath for a year with my oldest daughter, and every time I share something about it on my Instagram, I receive a lot of questions about the curriculum and why we chose an online option. After a year of using it, I felt it was time to do a full review and hopefully address some common questions, especially for those considering switching math curricula for homeschooling.
To be fully transparent, I purchased this curriculum with our own money, and the creators of CTCMath did not request or influence this review. This is simply an honest reflection of our experience after using it for the past year. I will be purchasing and using it again with both of my kids this upcoming homeschool year.
Why We Made the Switch to CTCMath
To put it simply, what we were using just wasn’t working. There was nothing wrong with the math books and curricula we tried, but they weren’t the right fit for my daughter. What she needed was straightforward instruction, plenty of opportunities to practice the concepts, and a less teacher-intensive option. While math games, manipulatives, and extra explanations for some children are helpful, they ended up becoming obstacles to her learning at this time.
I have been homeschooling long enough to also say that this may not be what we use all the way through, so I’ve learned to hold any curriculum loosely and reevaluate frequently with wisdom and discernment year by year. I also understand that CTCMath isn’t as “living” as one who desires to implement Charlotte Mason’s methods in their home education, but I am ok with that. My daughter is thriving in math, and enjoys her short lessons, so that’s proof enough for me that CTCMath is a worthy resource in our homeschool.
If you are looking for a more Charlotte Mason-style math program, I highly recommend The Charlotte Mason Arithmetic Series. I am currently using this with my youngest and will continue to supplement with this series 1-2x a week with both children in the future.
A Look Inside The Parent Portal
I thought I’d start by giving you a look inside the parent portal. Here, you will have access to all your students’ activities, progress, and plans. You can create exams and assign them to specific students (or assign the same exam to multiple students if you have children in the same grade/level) based on any of the modules/concepts. I like that you have the option to schedule exams and tasks in advance, so if you want to create a full 36-week lesson plan for your children, you can.
The Tasks option is a great tool to use, as it helps guide students to the lessons you want them to do each week without having you click around to the different modules manually throughout the week. As the parent, you can set specific settings like allowing your child the option for online questions, worksheet only, or both. You also have the option to choose if the student needs to attempt all questions and reach their pass grade (you set the pass grade when you create each new student portal) or choose to have the student only attempt all the questions, regardless of their pass grade. You can edit the pass grade if needed after creating the student portal.
A Look Inside The Student Portal
The student portal looks different than the parent portal and is very user-friendly. You can even change the colors! The first thing your students will see is any orange bubbles notifying them of new tasks or exams to complete. I created a new task to show as an example for you below.
Once the student clicks on their assignment/task, they will be able to see the modules they need to complete for the week or day, depending on how you schedule it. When creating the lesson plan task, you can choose to let the student complete the assignment in whatever order they want or complete it in the order listed. I typically choose the latter.
If you do not create tasks for your students, they can still easily navigate through the different lessons manually. They have access to all grades/levels on their portals.
What A Typical Math Lesson Looks Like For Us With CTCMath
My 9-year-old daughter starts her homeschool day with CTCMath, which has been the most effective for her since her focus seems to be better first thing in the morning. While I help her log into her student portal, she gathers a notebook, pencil, and headphones. Her computer screen is always facing outward, but I appreciate that there are no ads or clickbait in CTCMath, so I don’t mind stepping away and letting her complete her lesson independently.
For roughly 20 minutes, she will listen to the lesson demonstration video (see pictures below for what inside a lesson looks like), and proceed to her questions. She can see her progress immediately as she advances in her questions, which definitely motivates her when she sees more stars added to her progress bar. What I especially appreciate about CTCMath is that you’re only seeing one question at a time. I think for most of the math curriculum we’ve used previously, it was always overwhelming for her to see all the questions at once. If she completes the questions before her 20 minutes is over, she will sometime go back into the questions and attempt to get “mastery”. I do not require her to repeat questions if she gets 90% or higher.
If she needs help, I am available to assist her in working out the steps more slowly. If she cannot get through the entire lesson of questions, we still stop around the 20-minute mark and pick back up the next day. CTCMath has been tremendously helpful in ensuring we meet my daughter where she is at in her math abilities, rather than bulldozing through all the modules in a year. This has also allowed me to be more patient with her through her progress. All of her progress from the day before is automatically saved which makes it easy to come back and try again.
Wrapping Up
I have only scratched the surface of what you can do with CTCMath in this blog article, but I hope it gave you a general idea of what you might expect if you were to use it in your homeschool. Next year I intend to have both of my kids using CTCMath. However, because I only have one computer available, I might have my youngest begin his lessons using worksheets from the curriculum rather than online.
I did want to also note that CTCMath includes 3 math drill games for an assortment of math concepts. These might be an option at the end of our week when we’ve finished the lesson plans, or over breaks when I’d like to keep concepts fresh on their minds.
Lastly, I wanted to mention that they have a homeschool family membership option where your entire family (Kindergarten through Calculus) can have unlimited access to all grade levels for a discount on the price. You are also able to try a free trial to peek around the portals yourself before making any purchases, which is exactly what I did!
I do hope this blog post was helpful to you, but please feel free to leave any questions in the comments below! This is just what is working well right now for my oldest who is in 3rd-5th grade level math.
Thanks for reading through my review!
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