One of the greatest challenges with homeschooling multiple children or homeschooling children with learning struggles is never having enough of you to go around. Everyone needs you, and some of your children simply can’t accomplish the work without you sitting right beside them checking each answer. This is especially true with a subject like math. Finding a homeschool math curriculum that allows your child to be independent, to learn without you, to be instructed and corrected and to receive some basic help with their math lesson, can make a huge difference in your homeschool day. Teaching Textbooks is a homeschool math program that equips your child to learn math independently, even if your child has a learning struggle.
Homeschool Math Curriculum for independent learning
Disclaimer: I was compensated for my time in reviewing this product and writing an honest review. All opinions are my own, and I was under no obligation to post a positive review.
Teaching Textbooks is a full homeschool math curriculum for children 3rd grade through high school.
- It provides interactive instruction at the beginning of each lesson (about 15 minutes).
- Five questions specifically cover material from the current lesson.
- 22 additional questions review past material and practice current material.
- It spirals, reviewing older concepts with every lesson.
- Questions include both concept questions and practical application questions, basic computation as well as word problems.
- Another awesome feature of this program is that it grades and corrects each problem. The child knows immediately if his answer is right or wrong and has the option to watch the solution for every problem. The completed lesson is then recorded in the digital grade book and averaged into an overall score for the course.
The lessons are easily referenced within the course as an ebook as well. While this ebook is not printable, it does allow the parent to follow up on what was covered in the course without having to watch each lesson with the child or to look ahead at what is going to be covered.
Teaching Textbooks homeschool math courses engage the child with fun backgrounds, encouraging stickers for each problem (similar to a gif), and helpful hints from “buddies” that the child can customize. Another great feature, especially for a child with reading struggles, is that the entire lesson is read aloud to them: all the instruction and every question is both seen and heard. A man’s voice (an actual person’s voice, not a digital voice) provides the instruction or asks the questions as the text flashes across the screen. Every course, every level, all the way through high school has this feature. I was really impressed, as a lot of courses will provide this only for the younger levels. The font used throughout the program is also a dyslexia-friendly font. The people at Teaching Textbooks have really put a lot of thought into helping children with reading struggles succeed in math.
Teaching Textbooks 4.0 update
For many years, Teaching Textbooks used a flash-based system to operate their lessons. With their recent update to 4.0, they have moved to an app-based downloadable program rather than a flash-based streaming system. While this move has not been easy, the update has provided a lot more options for customizable backgrounds, stickers, and buddies, and also has a scratchpad/calculator that students can use to work out the problems right on their digital device. While the app is not available for tablets yet (we are using it on my laptop), I can see this scratchpad really being an awesome feature on a tablet, allowing the child to work through a problem with his finger or a stylus, rather than on a separate sheet of paper. While the new update still has some glitches and bugs that the company is working on, they have already made great progress. And I have no doubt this will be a really superior experience in the long term.
Our Experience with Teaching Textbooks
While all three of my children did try out the program (3rd grade, 7th-grade Pre-algebra, and 9th-grade Algebra), my youngest has liked it best. Within the half-hour that we schedule for math, my third grader could typically work through two lessons. For my older kids, the lessons took much longer, stretching to 45 min. to an hour for a single lesson. Also, the pace of the lessons is slower; there is no skimming through material you are already familiar with or speeding up the questions to answer them more quickly. For a child who tends to rush through things without learning, this intentionally paced lesson could be a really helpful feature.
However, my older kids struggled with this intentional pacing. During the lecture, they rattled off the answer over and over until the lesson finally brought up space for them to type in the answers. They reminded me of the rabbit in the movie Zootopia, waiting on the sloths at the DMV. Their rapid-fire, ADHD brains were really frustrated that they couldn’t set their own pace.
I intentionally placed my kids at exactly where their grade levels currently have them so that I could compare the program with what they were learning in other homeschool math programs. The older levels (pre-algebra and algebra) seemed to be pretty comparable to where they were at and included excellent application questions that really challenged my kids. They learned income tax, net and gross income, and quilt building (if a square has ___ dimensions and there are so many squares in each row with a 1” border, what is the size of the finished quilt?)
The third-grade course is probably easier than what my child is used to, especially in basic computation facts (addition and subtraction). Teaching Textbooks at the third-grade level covered basic single-digit addition and subtraction facts, whereas my son is adding and subtracting three-digit numbers (regrouping) and learning basic multiplication/division facts. In other areas, however, like geometry, the program seemed comparable to the others we’ve used. As with any new math program, be sure to take the placement tests online to get the right level for your child. But overall, I was satisfied with just starting at grade level with each of my kids and supplementing where the program was not quite where I wanted it.
Because this is a complete homeschool math curriculum with a spiral approach (rather than a mastery approach), placing a child midway through a course is really not a good idea. I tried to look through the ebook and skip those lessons that I thought my kids already knew, but found it really was best to just start at the beginning. It is not a program that I would recommend using as a supplement. It’s designed to be a full course and really should be used in that fashion, starting from the beginning and progressing through each lesson, even when the child is somewhat familiar with what’s being covered.
As with any digital program that my kids have used, they really struggle to get out a separate sheet of paper and actually work out a problem. They tend to want to work it in their heads or give it their best guess. Once Teaching Textbooks is available on the tablet, I’m really hopeful that the “scratchpad” feature will help with this, since they would be able to work through the problem right on their device rather than switching back and forth from notebook to laptop. Though the scratchpad is available on my laptop, it doesn’t quite allow for the same functionality: my kids can’t write on my laptop with a stylus.
Choosing a Homeschool Math Curriculum that’s right for you
If you are needing a program to help you identify and fill in learning gaps, or you have a child with asynchronous skills in math, a mastery-based program might work better. Teaching Textbooks is not ideal as a supplement and really is not customizable for learning gaps. It functions best as a complete curriculum, starting at the beginning and working all the way through.
However, Teaching Textbooks homeschool math courses are a really solid option for a complete math curriculum, especially for those who need a child to work through math with some independence. For children with learning struggles, this program equips them to learn independently. Particularly if you have an older child who really wants that independence, this is such a blessing. You will still need to follow up to make sure that lessons are being completed and that your child isn’t moving on without understanding the lessons. But if you need your child to get through a lesson without needing you to look at each problem or if you are drowning in math lessons that need to be graded, Teaching Textbooks is a great solution.
Check out Teaching Textbooks placement tests and demo lessons. Or, sign up for their free 15-lesson trial of any level! It could be just what you need to breathe some life back into your homeschool day.
