Teaching Textbooks Review
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Thank you to Teaching Textbooks for sponsoring this review and giveaway! As always, all opinions are my own.
Homeschool math… I think this was the subject I had the biggest worry about when it came to homeschooling my children. As an English major, math intimidated me. Now that we are about seven years into this homeschooling journey, I feel I have a handle on how to choose the best homeschool math curriculum and what works well for my kids. Today, I’m going to share with you my Teaching Textbooks review of TT 4.0 so you can decide if it’s right for your family, too!
Teaching Textbooks Review
Let’s get started with this review by talking all about Teaching Textbooks!
What is Teaching Textbooks?
So, if you’re brand new to homeschooling and have no idea what Teaching Textbooks is, this section is for you. Teaching Textbooks is an app-based homeschool math curriculum. It is the only homeschool math curriculum that does all the teaching and grading for the parent. That’s a huge win in my book!
Teaching Textbooks allows students to achieve independence in their math work. There is a system of safety nets set in place to ensure the student is actually learning. Those safety nets include:
- Hint – Students have the option to use hints if they need help with a problem. Parents can also turn off those hints if they would rather their child not use them.
- Second Chance – If a student misses a problem, they get another chance to answer correctly.
- Step-By-Step Solution – Students are immediately given the option to watch a step-by-step audio visual solution.
- Tutor Hotline – If a student is still struggling, they can call TT headquarters and get free help from a tutor.
When considering a homeschool math curriculum, ask yourself these questions:
- Does it do all of the teaching and grading? Does it give regular hints?
- Does it have teacher video for every single problem?
- Are there additional tools and options when kids start to struggle?
Teaching Textbooks begins with Math 3 and goes all the way up to Pre-Calculus. You choose which course you would like your child to take, and sign up for one year of access to the course. Here is the current pricing for one year of each digital course:
- Math 3, Math 4, and Math 5 cost $43.08 each
- Math 6 and Math 7 cost $55.08 each
- Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Pre-Calculus cost $67.08 each
What’s new in Teaching Textbooks 4.0
I wrote about our experience with Teaching Textbooks 3.0 a couple of years ago. We switched over to Teaching Textbooks after struggling with a different homeschool math curriculum that left both my oldest son and I in tears. Since switching, we have had a much better time with math.
Several of the new features for Teaching Textbooks 4.0 include updates to the grade book. I can log in to the TT website and check on each of my students’ grades. There is now an overall grade average displayed at the top of the grade book, as well as how much course time is left. I can see what lessons my child has completed, the score they received for that lesson, and the date the lesson was completed.
One of the biggest updates to Teaching Textbooks is that 4.0 is an app. It is specifically designed to be used on a wide range of devices. My kids easily complete their math lessons on my laptop, our desktop, their iPhones, and iPads.
Another update that we are loving is the scratchpad. The scratchpad is built right into the app and my kids can work out math problems on their tablets with a stylus just like they would with a pencil and paper. Since TT 4.0 is an app, it can also be used offline. You will need to connect to the Internet to update across devices and update the grade book every six lessons or so.
Teaching Textbooks also has updated new screen wallpapers and buddies, some that can be unlocked as kids complete lessons. There are new animated stickers to make things fun, too!
How we use Teaching Textbooks 4.0
I use Math 3, 4, and 5 with my three oldest children. Each of my kids complete one lesson per homeschool day. Sometimes they decide to do more than one lesson a day if they are especially motivated. My children know that they need to login in to their app and complete their lesson without me there. My older kids will ask me when they need help, and I often sit with my child who is in Math 3 while he does his lessons. It’s been working very well for our family!
I plan to start each of my children in Teaching Textbook Math 3 when they are in second grade. We use other programs that are off the computer for kindergarten and first grade.
What we love about Teaching Textbooks
I love that my kids can use Teaching Textbooks when we are on the road. They can use my laptop or our iPad and complete their lessons in the van. It makes life much easier!
Teaching Textbooks includes 3 months of pause time, so I can pause the kids’ lessons for a week at a time whenever we are taking a break from school.
We are definitely Teaching Textbooks long haulers!
Teaching Textbooks Free Trial
Would you like to try Teaching Textbooks 4.0? You can get the first 15 lessons of any course for free! No credit card information is required.
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Why We Switched to Teaching Textbooks 3.0 for our Homeschool Math Curriculum
Teaching Textbooks is our favorite homeschool math curriculum!
With teaching 4 kids at different levels, TIME is my biggest struggle!
Thanks for your review! The hardest part about teaching math for me has been helping my child feel confident. Algebra has been tough!
I’ve been using the trial TT with my kids and absolutely love it for my son! We were using a way more teaching-intensive curriculum and it was driving us both nuts. He loves the independence and so do I!
My child and I both struggle in math. I’ve tried a couple of different curriculums and she doesn’t like them and I believe it’s partially because of me. I’m currently trying their free trail. So far I’m loving it! It takes the pressure off of me and she understands their explanation better than mine.
Thank you for doing this review and giveaway!
Love love love TT. We’ve been using it for many years now, mostly discs. But I’m loving the 4.0 version online. I don’t even look at other math curriculum.
Thank you for this review!
I am really excited about this update. I am going to try a free trial. I was just telling my son that we might give this a try and he was excited. Thank you for this give-a-way
My biggest struggle in teaching math is finding time to grade it as we get in the higher levels.
I find it hard to keep up with grading and record keeping.
My biggest math struggle currently is grading, specifically taking the time to grade. From your review, I really like how TT is laid out and seems very user friendly.
My son just does not like grasp any math concept well and I have a hard time teaching it in a way he understands.
Biggest struggle is getting my son to slow down and write out his work. He tries to do everything in his head.
My biggest struggle with teaching math is, getting my children to engage and stay focused on what I am teaching them.
Thank you for the giveaway! I found math to be the hardest thing with my high schooler. But we began the trial period on Teaching Textbooks and it has been the best for him so far. Due to income issues we have not been able to purchase the full year yet and are behind. I hope to enter the giveaway please. I am not the smartest person when it comes to math. When we began homeschooling middle of his Freshman year, math always ended up in tears for us both. Now he is a Junior and I have no idea what is going on. I believe Teaching Textbooks may be the answer for us. Thank you and have a blessed day!
Hello! We switched to TT this year. The pace is great for my daughter, who struggles with math. I love that she gets immediate feedback and knows is she is doing it correctly. If she scores less than 80%, I delete her score and we do a “do-over” together. My daughter is finally gaining confidence in math!
I have tried other math programs and he doesn’t like any of them. He says they are boring. I am horrible at math and am getting where I can not explain it to him.
My biggest issue with teaching math is getting my son to show his work. He wants to do his Algebra in his head. And amazingly he is normally able to get the right answer – often better than his mom. However if he gets the answer wrong I have absolutely no way to see where he went off course.
We love TT ! I’m excited to try this new version!
this is great, as my daughter using ipad for most courses! we are struggling to find a good algebra fit, so this might be it
I have a hard time explaining the concepts and why’s is math. We are moving so slow with our current curriculum
We are right bored with our current curriculum and so ready for a little change.
This is a great giveaway! We recently found Teaching Textbooks and love it so much better than anything else we’ve tried… and we’ve tried a lot!
My son has autism, and so far the only math he does well with is Teaching Textbooks.
I use version 2.0 and am hoping they will continue to work for awhile. I love TT. My kids don’t but that’s mainly because it is math.
My biggest struggle is finding the balance between being too easy for my kids or too advanced to be interesting. The boys both love math if it’s challenging enough but not TOO challenging. That’s been impossible for me to find without an online program!
How do you write out your lesson plan do you just put lessons 1-5 in your planner