Review of CTC Math

Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through affiliate links in this post.

Today I have a review of CTC Math. We recently got to spend time with the 12 Month Family Plan. CTC Math is an online math curriculum for grades K-12. The child who spent the most time using it is my 7-year-old son. He worked on the 1st and 2nd grade levels. I also had a few more kids try it out–my 3-year-old, 5-year-old, 12-year-old, and 13-year-old.

How it Works

The way CTC Math works is you get a parent account and a specific child account for each child. The child logs in with their username and password each time they are ready to do math. They then click on the next lesson to do. It’s pretty organized into categories, so they know what the basic topic is that they are studying and they know how many lessons are in that category. The lessons are taught by an Australian man. (His accent is fun!) For the 1st grade level, the lessons were pretty short (usually less than 5 minutes).

The lessons often have graphics to describe the concepts. There are a lot of pictures and cute graphics for the younger kids. After watching the lesson, they do the questions. There is a downside here if your child isn’t an independent reader because these aren’t read out loud like the lesson portion is. One thing that’s neat about the lessons are the bar at the top that shows them how close they are to finishing it. For first grade there were 10 questions for each lesson.

The first grade math covers these categories:

Number, Patterns, and Algebra: whole numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, patterns, money.

Measurement: length, area, capacity and volume, mass, time.

Space and Geometry: plane shapes, solids, position.

Statistics and Probablilty: graphs, chance.

One thing I really liked was getting weekly emails that told me exactly what my kids worked on that week and how they did. They even have certificates to print out for reaching certain levels! The younger ones got really excited about those!

After completing a category, there are 2 types of tests called standard and comprehensive (one is longer than the other) that the kids can take so you can check their progress and decide if they are ready to move on. Or you can use the diagnostic tests to determine where in the curriculum your child should start working.

Speed Skills

Another feature on the site is Speed Skills, which is a fun math game a couple of my kids played.

My older boys (6th and 7th grade) did a few lessons from the 7th grade section called Basic Math and Pre-Algebra. At this level there is a sheet to print out for the questions, so the kids can do their lessons on paper. On the side of it there is a bank of answers to choose from. They will enter the letter associated with the correct answer on the computer for grading. My oldest son didn’t like this because he felt it was too easy to guess what the answer would be if he didn’t correctly work the problem the first time.

Who Will Like CTC Math?

I would recommend CTC Math for two different types of people. If you want to use it for a full curriculum, it can be that for the elementary ages. Or if your child needs extra help in math (for all levels up through 12th grade), it is a wonderful resource for an online math tutor!