CTC Online Math Tutoring – Review

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Jackie

Math was never my strong suit when I was in school and the only way to get some extra help was to sign up for tutoring. Traditional tutoring was usually after school once or twice a week and last an hour or so… nothing spectacular really. If you were lucky you got a great tutor that was able to finally break through to you and you’d figure it out or not so lucky and you still couldn’t figure it out after hours.

Now, there are more options than ever with the internet! I recently had the opportunity to try out CTC Math and see how it worked with my kids.

So what is CTC math?

CTC Math is an online-based math tutoring program that is available for the just one student or the entire family. They have unlimited access to all lessons across all grade levels. With the program you can learn at your own pace with the ability to stop and rewind the lesson so there is a better understanding of the material. There are over 1400 tutorials each lasting 4 – 9 minutes with combined audio and visual to help instill the lesson being taught. After each tutorial there are interactive questions or an optional printable worksheet which tests the understanding of key concepts. Once all the questions have been answered the system stores the results for a report.

Aside from being able to log into the site and check the progress of my child they also email you each week to let you know exactly how your child is doing. The report helps you figure out where the child is struggling or excelling and if they need extra help somewhere.

Our thoughts

My youngest daughter used it the most and immediately loved it. The way that the lessons were presented allowed her to fully understand and grasp the concepts pretty quickly. After working with it for 30 minutes she was excited that she had finally figured something out that had been stumping her for a while and with immediate feedback on what her score is she knows whether she really “got it” or not and she can try again if she wants.

My older two also gave it a try too. My oldest, Caitlin, is beyond the highest level that they offer (trig) but still went through some of the tutorials and she also thought that it was well laid out and if she needed the help that it would be perfect.

Natalie gave it a shot too and felt the same as her other sisters but didn’t play around with it as much as I would have liked. I think that if she had tried a few of the tutorials that were above her level she would have been able to pick up those concepts pretty easily.

Aside from the tutorial benefit of CTC math I think that it would be perfect for keeping up over the long summer vacation, getting a little ahead, or even used for homeschooling.

Getting that little boost in math can really do a lot for a child aside from raising their math grade. It can help boost their confidence, understanding of math, and the incentive to keep trying when it comes to math and their education.

Try it!

If you’re interested in the program you can try their free trial. You can also sign up for a single student or family plan at monthly, 6 month, or 12 month rates.

Disclosure: CTC Math was provided to me to try out and review. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

Guest Post ~ Educated but not prepared

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Jackie

Today I have a special guest for you! Tim from Soge Shirts, a funny t-shirt shop, is here to share a few thoughts on education. You can find him on Twitter or Facebook throughout the week supporting all of us bloggers. And we love him for all the support!

My parents both had teaching careers lasting over 20 years. My dad taught for thirty and retired a few years ago and my mom is in her 20th and final year of teaching. Education has always been important to me, and I still think it needs to be viewed as being even more important. Transitioning into adulthood I find that there were things in high school and college that my education completely skipped over. Sure as kids in school we learn about the Civil war and the periodic table of elements, but we often leave the educational system without proper job skills.

How about some mandatory classes in high school about how to manage ones finances? How to handle credit responsibly and plan for retirement? How to deal with banks and open an IRA account? Things like this in my education I never received from school. Luckily we have Google and my dad gives pretty good advice. Still there are people out there that have limited access to computers or don’t have educated parents. Mandatory classes on finance during high school or even junior high could have a huge impact on the future of our economy as a whole and individual financial success. Realistically knowing every president in our countries history is a fine and admirable thing but it doesn’t help our economic futures much.

Also I feel schools should help prepare their students better for the work force. It seems few majors in college actually help one land a job. If you are studying to be a doctor or lawyer and are at the top of your class then you will find work quite easily. However if you are in political science, communications, or any other general major you can still get a job, but it will be harder. I majored in communications and while it taught me how to write better all I was qualified to be out of college was an unemployed soul with no sense of direction. Luckily I decided to get into online business on my own and have since learned much more educating myself how to make it in business then I ever would have learned in school. My point is that while memorizing facts and figures is great for passing tests I’m not sure schools and colleges do great for preparing one for the real world.

Tim is a consultant for Interactive Music Teacher where they teach online music lessons

Readers Night

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Jackie

Once a month one of the local schools hosts a program called Readers from Birth which focuses on introducing books and reading to kids.

I had heard about the program before but thought that maybe Andrew was to young to go even though it is for kids from birth. This week I gave in and took him along with my grandmother in law, cousin in law and her 2 year old daughter.

I have to say that I was a little concerned because Andrew doesn’t sit still for anything…. ever. And on top of that when we’ve taken him to the mall and let him run around the play area with other kids he’s had the tendency to get a little.. rough. Like full on shoving and that is usually our cue to leave before I become one of those moms. I didn’t want to go to an event and have him run around like a crazy kid or start pushing people around.

We went and it was pretty neat that they had everything all set up for a craft…. I think it was more for the parents since my cousin and I ended up doing most everything aside from a little of the coloring from the kids. Although, Andrew did like helping with the glue stick.

I love how the event is run by pre-school teachers who were great with the kids and seemed to really enjoy what they were doing even after spending the entire day with little kids.

The teachers believe in reading and starting from a young age is important so once a month they put on this program and share reading with all the kids.

They simply didn’t read the books to the kids. They made it fun and interactive with felt boards, songs, dancing, and puppets. The music and dancing with the puppets was one of Andrew’s favorite parts of the night as you can tell by the blurry picture.

Something that came as a surprise to me was that he actually sat down for a couple minutes and almost paid attention to the story! I think that it was more because all the other kids sat down and listened first, but as I suspected it didn’t take long for him to give up on that sitting still thing and get up to run around.

Once all the stories & songs were done they passed out juice and cookies for all the kids. My kid… the odd one… wouldn’t eat the cookie covered in frosting and sprinkles. A Lofthouse cookie to be exact! It’s okay… I didn’t let it go to waste.

What a better way to spend the evening than playing with kids your own age (one of them being your cousin), drinking juice, and reading the new book that they gave everyone!