TT - Are you happy with it?

[CarenM]

What are your thoughts for those that use it?

[abbeyej]

I let my daughter start using level 5 over the summer as a supplement. I think it's *extremely* light compared with the other materials we use, and I find it difficult to imagine using it alone. That said, she needed the chance to build confidence and do some work that "felt" different than our usual workbook work and it has been good for that. She enjoys it, the explanations are calm and reassuring, obviously she can't ever imagine that the computer is judging her for her answers... All of that has been good.

 

I'm happy with it for the purpose I chose it for. ... But I don't think dd is *learning* as much (in terms of depth of understanding) or getting as much *practice* from it as she gets from Horizons or Singapore...

 

I would not have used it at all with my son, who is a very strong math student. But in terms of providing a little extra practice and a very patient, non-judgmental tutor for dd, it's been useful.

[oraetstudia]

I'm very happy with it. It turned my daughter, who isn't not mathy and cried over math daily, into a child who says math is her favorite subject. Does it mean she's suddenly way ahead? No. She's not as behind either though. It's helped her understand things she didn't grasp at all before and it has helped her feel much more confident in her abilities. It's also allowed me to have more time to do other things with other kids -- outsourcing her math has been good for me too. And this year, I'm letting another child do TT too.

 

I suspect for a kid who is extremely good at math, it might not be the best choice. I'm not letting my oldest use it. I think there are other programs better suited to him, although he really, really wanted to do TT as well.

[In2why]

I like it and it is working for my kids. I think being easy to use and finish is part of what makes it wonderful for us. Some people write that it is not as meaty as Singapore or some others and perhaps that is the case, but we used Saxon and MUS as well and I find TT teaches the same things but with less hassle. Taking the pre-test is important before deciding where to put your child and while you can complete TT with just the computer I think for retention that it is important to do the worksheets or the problems on paper. Neither of my boys are oral learners so putting pencil to paper makes it stick. The other thing we had to do when we started the program was work with our 7th grader to slow down. They get used to the instant clicking that comes with computers, and he needed to remember that it wasn't a video game, or Google where he could just skim. But things are going great now, and I love that it does most of the teaching for me and frees up my energy and time for other things. I guess the best way to sum it up is that not every subject has to be hard or pushed to the limit, and for us we choose for math to be simple yet effective.

[NanceXToo]

Very happy with it.

 

1. It frees me up to do other things since it's not teacher intensive.

 

2. It's done in a way that makes it easy for the child to understand and "get" math, which is great for us since neither my daughter nor I are particularly "mathy."

 

3. It's done in a way that makes math more fun and entertaining than a dry textbook would be, so there's no complaints of it being boring.

 

4. My daughter's standardized test scores improved dramatically in math after just one year of using TT at grade level with no supplementing.

 

5. My daughter no longer thinks math is too hard, no longer dislikes math, and no longer thinks she is bad at math. In fact, she now LIKES math.

[Mom0012]

I really like it as a supplement. My daughter enjoys doing it and it makes her feel very positive about math. I'm not sure it would work for us as a stand-alone program, though.

 

Lisa