Ohhhh, math. [insert heavy sigh here] I feel like it’s the bane of many a homeschool mama’s existence to find the “perfect” math curriculum. While maybe a bit dramatic, sometimes finding the right thing seems very akin to a quest for the holy grail. Maybe without the rats and near drownings. I don’t believe a perfect curriculum exists, but I do think that for each family, and even each child, there are resources available to suit unique needs and learning styles.
*I was asked to provide an honest review of our experience with Teaching Textbooks math curriculum and details as to the reasons behind our decision to utilize Teaching Textbooks in our homeschool. I hope this review will serve as a benefit to others who are interested in this curriculum as a way to help you make a decision for yourself.
Our Math History
We’ve had great success with the math curriculum we’ve used in our 6 years of homeschooling. However, once our oldest flew through the first two levels of the early math he was using, I knew it was time to find something a bit more challenging for him. Something less mastery based, and more of a spiral approach to keep his attention. Even though he was only half-way through his first-grade year, I looked at Teaching Textbooks Math 3 to see if that would line up with where he was headed in his math skills. I really didn’t see any issues with switching and purchased a digital course right away! Now he is in fifth grade and halfway through Math 7. Our second oldest just started Math 3 this year and she is really enjoying it!
What We Love about Teaching Textbooks
What do we love about TT? Let me count the ways…
Built-in Lectures
When we switched to Teaching Textbooks math curriculum for our oldest, I was in the thick of life with a newborn and two preschoolers. I needed something that would teach the new concepts thoroughly in case I wasn’t available. Teaching Textbooks is engaging throughout the lectures, requiring the student to follow along with entering portions of answers to problems while learning the new concept. Students can back up and replay portions of the lectures as many times as they need to. If a student needs to replay an earlier lecture for a refresh, they can easily locate the correct lecture a certain concept is taught in because the lesson number is listed on each question asked. Here is an example from the Math 3 level:
Built-in Question Review
You have the option to offer your child second chances on questions if they get it wrong the first time. This is just a simple setting in the parent portal, as well as the option to turn hints on or off for lessons and quizzes. However, if they get it wrong a second time, or if your student is struggling to remember how to work through the problem, they always have the option to “Watch the Solution” and it is worked out in great detail for them. I love this feature so much! Since math isn’t my strong suit, I love that they can see it explained to them! I often watch myself so that I CAN help them if I need to step in.
Built-in Grading
While we don’t really keep grades in our homeschool right now (all of my kids are 10 and under), I do like that Teaching Textbooks keeps all of those records for me. As the parent, I also have the ability to change grades on particular questions after my student and I discuss why they may have gotten the answer wrong. Sometimes it was a simple mistake or typo, and I can change the answer to correct the mistake after they show me they understand the error. I also get an email every morning with the previous day’s lesson completed listed for each student, along with the grade they received. There can be a lot of moving parts in our day, and this is super helpful for me to keep on top of where they are at in this subject.
Built-in Incentives & Interactive Options
My kids love changing the wallpapers and buddies on their screens for Teaching Textbooks, and they receive new wallpaper, buddies, and virtual stickers as they work through the lessons. The buddies interact with them as they complete questions and giggles often ensue! They also have the freedom to toggle hint sounds off or on and they are able to view their own gradebooks to check on progress.
Built-in Quizzes and Bonus Rounds
About every 7-10 lessons or so, Teaching Textbooks will have a quiz to review concepts learned up to that point. There is no lecture with a quiz, and the 20-22 questions come from a sampling of the prior lessons to gauge continued understanding of concepts and to help highlight areas where they may still need some review. In the Math 3 and Math 4 levels, there are also bonus rounds offered occasionally to give the student opportunities to quickly test their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. These can be slightly stressful with the sound on, so we just mute and it’s not an issue. I usually physically enter the answers, so they aren’t frantically trying to find the number button and they just shout out the answers. ha!
Built-in Physical Copy
We do not own any screens other than laptops (i.e. tablets), so we have our Teaching Textbooks loaded on two laptops in case my older two want to do their math at the same time. On road trips though, which we take fairly often, I sometimes will have them do car schooling on a clipboard if our drive days fall on a Monday through Friday. Teaching Textbooks makes this super easy because I always have the option to print the lesson! This includes the full lecture AND questions! Once we get to our destination, they can just enter their answers into the app and recycle their paper copies. If you did have tablets, and were traveling, Teaching Textbooks automatically saves several lessons offline for you so you don’t have to be connected to the internet to download those! How cool is that??
Built-in Pause Time
Lastly, a feature I really love as a year-round homeschooler is the ability to pause each digital course for up to 3 months. Let’s say you purchase a digital course (12 months total) in June, and then take the month of August off of lessons. You can pause the course for the entire month of August and your course then wouldn’t expire until July of the next year. There are “rules” around pausing like having to pause for a minimum of a week at a time, but the simple explanation is that it is super flexible and would serve a family well who operates on more non-traditional school year schedules!
DID YOU KNOW?
We have yet to take advantage of this amazing feature, but did you know that Teaching Textbooks offers FREE tutoring? From their website FAQ:
…note that this is rare if not unprecedented amongst homeschool curriculum companies, certainly math companies. Both the telephone call and the time spent tutoring is free to all customers. In fact, it’s been this way since we opened our doors. One-on-one tutoring is a final (if necessary) “backstop” for struggling students and part of our guarantee to take the entire burden of math off of parents’ shoulders.
– Teaching Textbooks FAQ
So, while there may not be a perfect math curriculum out there, Teaching Textbooks ticks a whole lot of the boxes for us and we have plans to continue using it with our children! Do you have any questions for me? I’m happy to answer what I can, or find out the answers for you if I don’t know off-hand. Don’t forget there is a free trial available for each level!
You can read more about our journey with math here, here, here, here, and here.
stay together.
